Ignorance is Bliss
by Deathisangel
Summary: She was a maid that worked for Elizabeth Middleford, and had powers far beyond the ordinary. He was a mysterious butler with a murky past that served Ciel Phantomhive. They both worked unnaturally well and had peculiar means of payment.
1. The Incident

Blood.

_It is a liquid with a taste more sweetly scrumptious than even the finest of Italian wines. She loved the intoxicating taste, but disliked the methods she had to use to get it. What reason was there, after all, to make herself end a person's life simply for the blood that they contained?_

A child with beautiful gold hair twisted and turned in her luxurious bed sheets as the moonlight shone upon her face, her delicate, doll-like features contorted into an intensely agitated expression. If you were to consider her expression, as well as the fact that she was gripping her sheets to the point of almost tearing them, it would be fair to assume that she was having a nightmare.

A multitude of whimpers escaped the full pink lips of the child, followed by a high-pitched scream that ripped it's way out of her throat and pierced the stillness of the moonlit night. The child was jolted awake, her pale pink nightgown drenched with sweat and her hair wildly tangled. Frightened green eyes scanned the room, and took in the familiar scene of countless dolls and toys, and the pink wallpaper that – made her remember that this was the scene of her bedroom. The child's dilated pupils shrunk, and she buried her head into her arms, waiting, and listening silently as she had done on many nights, for the expected clickity-clack of her door opening.

The thick oak door swung slowly open, and a tall, slender figure entered the room. The figure's silver eyes peered expectantly into the emerald hues of the child as if asking, simply to be polite, for an explanation that was already known.

"Is it another nightmare, my lady?" The figure asked, her soft and lilting voice penetrating the silence of the room.

The child glanced back at the taller girl who had raven-black curls that were still in impeccable condition, despite the fact that she had just seemingly ran down a flight of stairs and through numerous hallways to get to her bedroom. It also seemed quite odd that the taller girl was wearing a maid's uniform at this time of night.

"Yes…Always the same one. Over and over." The child replied, her expression dark and filled with hatred.

"I see. Do you require any form of comfort?" The raven-haired girl asked, her heavy black skirt crinkling with every movement she made.

The gold-haired child paused, as if contemplating how she should respond to the question. Do I need to be comforted, she seemed to be asking herself, as she played with her nightgown, and glanced out her window momentarily.

"No. I am perfectly fine, Mariette." the child muttered, her emerald eyes half-closed as she studied the other girl leisurely, as if checking to see if the other girl was still paying attention.

The raven-haired girl stood patiently, her face set in a mechanical neutral expression that was so lifeless that it reminded the gold-haired girl of the face on a giant doll. The raven-haired girl would probably have made an excellent doll though, with her pale, alabaster complexion, high cheekbones, elegant roman nose, and blood-red lips. Her eyes, though, were the most striking part of her, as well as the only part of her that seemed truly alive.

Her eyes were both large and exoticly almond-shaped, framed by lush, dark lashes that only accentuated the marvelous colour of her eyes. Both of her eyes seemed to be a strange silvery colour from afar, though in fact, if you took the time to look a bit closer, they were actually two different colours. Her right eye was a dark violet closest to the pupil, melting into a pale blue colour that became silver as it reached the edges of her eye, while her left eye was a blood red colour closest to the pupil that merged into a fierce orange and then, briefly into a shining gold before subsiding into the customary silver at the edges. Her eyes showed nothing but coldness and cruelty, and the determination to survive no matter what. Her eyes held a depth to them that showed intense intelligence, but also a glimmer of dark amusement that made her seem like a trickster, but one that was more powerful than you could possibly imagine.

"Why aren't you wearing the mask I ordered for you, Mariette?" The gold-haired child said, as she turned away, her expression instinctively haughty.

A flash of red flared in Mariette's left eye, unnoticed by the other child, and disappeared as quickly as it came.

" My deepest apologies, my lady, for the mask has not been delivered yet."

"Then make sure it is here tomorrow. This is an order, Mariette." The gold-haired child said, looking away, and then added, as if trying to apologize, "because of your looks, the other servants are beginning to suspect you are here because of....questionable circumstances."

"Yes, my lady." Mariette proclaimed, sinking into a deep curtesy, her eyes calm and cool, as if accepting the apology.

"You may go." The green-eyed child whispered, her expression suddenly wistful.

"Then I shall take my leave, my lady." Mariette answered, stepping gracefully towards the thick wood door, her high-heeled black shoes bizarrely silent as they made their made across the room.

She suddenly paused, and turned her sterling – hued eyes back towards the other child, looking at her with a queer mix of amusement, nostalgia, and hunger. She opened her mouth, and hesitantly said,

"Tomorrow is my Feeding day. Please make sure you are prepared, my lady."

The golden-haired child did not look back at her, instead choosing to gaze out the window at the almost-full moon, as if questioning the time that had passed since that day. She unconsciously gripped her bed-sheets in a fiercely determined manner, and turned her head to look back at the raven-haired child, her green eyes wild, and blazing with hatred, and whispered,

"They will pay for their crime. We will make sure of it."

Mariette looked back, her expression unreadable, and curtseyed in a swirl of black and white skirts, before exiting the room. Just before exiting though, she licked her lips, and opened her mouth slightly, allowing the moonlight to reveal a pair of gleaming white canines that elongated fractionally before receding back to their normal length.

"Of course, my lady. That is the contract, after all." She murmured, her voice deepening to a honeyed, and yet harsh alto, a sharp contrast to the soft and feminine voice of before. Her eye flashed red again, for a moment, and then returned to the emotionless silvery colour of before as she swiftly exited the room.

"Indeed it is…Indeed…" The gold-haired girl muttered, as she closed her eyes to remember what happened that fateful night…

_The moonlight shone upon the cobblestones of a dimly lit street, and a cloaked figure could be seen gliding hesitantly out of the shadows of an alleyway. Her flamboyantly pink, high-heeled boots clacked quietly over the filth-ridden stones of the London street, and her pretty face was unusually melancholy. There was nothing especially special about the figure in question, other than the fact that the figure was a blonde, green-eyed girl named Elizabeth Middleford – a young 10-year-old noblewoman who was obviously unaccustomed, and quite unsuited to walking the streets of London at night._

_She had run away from her carriage in a fit of tears at the fact that her parents had been considering whether or not to break off the her betrothal. Her parents were probably considering this because the fortune of the Phantomhives had dwindled to almost half the amount of before, because of the fire that consumed the mansion - and two of it's three inhabitants. She loved the boy who she was to marry so much, that even the thought of her being seperated from him hurt her to the very core. Her parents had seemed so uncaring and horrible back then, that she simply couldn't take it anymore. After her escape from the carriage though, it didn't take long for her to get lost, and thus she found herself strolling through an unknown London street at night._

_Her current semi-sad expression would most likely have been caused by the fact that her beloved fiancée, Ciel Phantomhive, had finally returned to the Phantomhive mansion. It was not the fact that he returned that upset her, - she was actually quite overjoyed at the fact that he was back, but Ciel had just seemed so different now. He seemed so cold, so sad, as if he was utterly and entirely alone._

_Her Ciel had lost his smile._

_It was also quite odd that he was suddenly able to find a new butler, especially one that was as shockingly capable as the man named Sebastian Michealis. The butler seemed to be perfectly fine in her opinion, though he sometimes seemed to be _too_ perfectly fine. Though the red-eyed butler was seemingly unquestioning in his servitude and loyalty towards Ciel, the greedy and almost sadistic look that sometimes took place in his eyes, as well as the way his smiles all gave the impression of being fake, confirmed her suspicions of the butler being someone with an ulterior motive._

_She was so lost in her thoughts that she failed to notice the fact that she was being followed by three tall, bulky men, as well as another slim figure that flitted from chimney to chimney, occasionally glancing down at her in amusement. The three men came after her with a frighteningly savage intent, like three tigers after one sheep._

_A beefy hand with a blue-stoned ring branded with a strange design adorning the fourth finger clamped down on her mouth, and her slim figure was thrown roughly to the ground as two other pairs of hands held her down in unyielding grips. The girl's emerald eyes widened and she struggled desperately to yell, to scream, to put up any type of struggle possible so that she could escape._

_The men laughed at her pathetic attempt to get help, and simply held her even tighter to insure that she could not escape. One of the men, with dirty blonde hair and cruel blue eyes, took out a rusty knife and held it to her neck._

"_You're a pretty little thing, aren't you? Too bad you're just as filthy as the rest of those nobles, and filth needs to be cleaned out of the body." He spat._

_He ripped through the front of her sky-blue dress, and tore the bows from her curly gold hair, laughing madly, almost insanely, as he stared at her pale, child-like chest and now disheveled gold locks. Another man, with bloodshot brown eyes and dull brown hair ripped open the bottom of her dress, tearing through the delicate silk lining and the tiny, precise stitches that made up her beautiful pink dress. _

_Elizabeth watched, her eyes showing both fear and fury, as if she wanted to do something, but if she did anything at all, the abuse would only become worse. She was too afraid, or perhaps, too shocked to respond to anything._

_"Ha. What a dirty little whore she is, just like the rest of those nobles. Parading themselves in front of the poor with all their finery like fattened peacocks." The man with brown eyes said, his voice filled with venom._

_Elizabeth was too furious to feel her fear anymore, and viciously bit the hand of the man who was covering her mouth, reveling in his yelp of pain._

_"Ciel? Help me! HEL-"_

_She was cut off by a brutal backhanded slap that silenced her immediately. The man's sharp edges of the ring the man was wearing cut into her pale, unblemished face, and drew a thin line of crimson blood across her cheek. The man holding her cursed, and abruptly dragged her into an alley. He then stuffed a wad of cloth into her mouth, and tied her wrists with more strips of the cloth._

_"Stupid little bitch. We should've just given her to those religious freaks." He muttered._

_The blonde haired man leered at her, and said "Those freaks never said we couldn't have some fun with her first." He awkwardly pulled down his trousers and laughed as he saw the incredulous look on her beautiful face._

_"You think I won't?" He asked, smirking, "you nobles always underestimate how far we'll go for revenge."_

_Her eyes widened again, but in fear rather than shock, and her movements became even more frantic as she flailed around, but to no avail. The blonde man forced himself into her, laughing at her spasm of pain from the entry, and ignored the girl's muffled pleas and tears. The other two men simply watched in dark fascination as the innocent little girl lost her virtue._

_It is human nature, after all to kill, to hurt, and to cause any kind of pain possible upon others. We are, contrary to our egocentric belief, actually creatures of instinct rather than true intellect, and we would watch, if not in horror, then in simple indifference or false emotions that we think we should feel, as what is pure becomes impure, and what is right becomes wrong. The blackness of our sin is what taints the white of this world._

_With every thrust that the blonde-haired man forced into her, the pain of the hideous crime deepened. Eventually, though she felt like crying and screaming and pleading more, she simply could not find anything left in her that would let her cry, and so she did not. She saw her whole life flash through her mind, and then began to regret. She regreted every time she was rude to her maids. She regreted not listening to her parents. She regreted not taking all the world gave her and using it for acts of kindness. She regreted her selfishness. Most of all though, she regreted not being able to tell Ciel that she... Loved him. More than anything, and anyone._

_She felt nothing as the world dissolved into darkness._


	2. The Mask

Disclaimer - The plot and characters of Kuroshitsuji all belong to Yana Toboso. I only own... Mariette.

_Greed sets the body on the path to destruction. Perhaps that's why we choose that path... Because we are controlled by our souls and not our bodies._

A golden haired child slept peacefully on a wide, airy bed with pale pink, lace-trimmed sheets and mounds of fluffy white pillows. Her expression seemed to be one of an almost-happiness, with a faint, fragile smile that was oddly suitable gracing her delicate, wraith-like features. She was a beautiful child, with an air of fragility that automatically made you want to protect her from anything and anyone that might ever want to hurt her. How ironic, though, that this fragility also made people want to hurt her, because of the satisfaction that can be gained from breaking something so delicate.

A tall, willowy girl stepped gracefully into the room, quietly rolling an intricately decorated metal cart with finely prepared food stacked on top of it. The girl had on a smile that seemed warm, and yet also somehow cold, as if she has on two smiles - an outer warm smile that served as a perfect mask, and an inner cold smile that showed that there were other intentions at hand. Her coal-black skirts swished gently against the metallic cart as she continued her way into the darkened room.

She stopped the cart beside the pink drawers that sat beside the gold-haired child's unnecessarily large bed, and moved silently towards the pink curtains, drawing them both back in one swift, precise movement. She flawlessly secured the curtains to the side, and whispered,

"It is time to wake up, my lady."

Sunlight flooded the room, and the gold-haired child reluctantly opened her eyes, only to shut them almost immediately afterwards because of the flashes of intensely bright sunlight that burned into her eyes. She blinked, and squinted as her jade-green eyes gradually adjusted to the light.

Elizabeth yawned, politely covering her mouth as she did so, and stretched lazily, as she slowly opened her emerald eyes to glare at the rays of too-bright sunlight that invaded her spacious room. Her thoroughly annoyed gaze drifted to the silver-eyed figure that was apparently busy pulling out a tray of scones. She stared at the other girl for a moment, and then sharpened her gaze, as if suddenly realizing something out-of-place, and asked,

"Where is your mask?"

The dark-haired girl's expression seemed mocking for a second as she pulled out a gold-green teapot, and then abruptly switched to warm and entirely innocent, as she turned to face Elizabeth. There was a flash of silver as the dark-haired girl pulled out a metallic object from the folds of her dress and kneeled on one knee, holding the object as if she were holding a ring for proposal. The golden-haired girl raised an eyebrow in questioning, and listened curiously as the other girl explained,

"If my lady would be gracious enough to bestow this beautiful mask upon my face, I would be forever grateful to my kind and generous lady." She whispered, her voice soft and lilting, her eyes wide but unreadable, and her expression looking like the very epitome of sweetness.

Elizabeth stared incredulously at the other girl, and then narrowed her eyes in suspicion, as if wondering whether or not the other girl was mocking her, but eventually agreed to 'bestow' the mask, after a few seconds of careful pondering. She took the metallic object from the pale and elegant fingers of the other girl, and held it gently, with the utmost care.

"I, Lady Elizabeth Middleford, present this mask to Mariette Amorina to acknowledge the loyalty she has shown the Middleford family, and the flawless service she has provided. It is my greatest honour to be able to bestow this gift of a mask upon her, so that she may be able to properly hide the scars she has acquired during a fire in her family." She announced dramatically, in a sickly-sweet voice, as she placed the mask onto Mariette's perfectly _unblemished _face, taking the thin white strings in her own slender fingers and securing them in a tightly made butterfly knot.

Mariette suddenly smirked, the expression odd and extremely out-of-place on her beautiful, delicate features, and reached up to adjust her mask.

"So I'm a pitiful little orphan child now? One who was in a gigantic fire that consumed the lives of her parents and scarred her once-beautiful face?" Mariette asked, her voice still beautiful, but with an undercurrent of darkness, a deeper, harsher tone that seemed venomously seductive. "Last time, wasn't I a beautiful child who had limitless potential but lived in a place where I could never get that 'chance-of-a-lifetime', because of my abusive and straight-down poor family? Why change it now?"

Mariette glanced down at the other girl, her unearthly eyes icy and unnaturally calm, as if she were only asking the time of day. Her mask looked bizarrely natural as it rested on her face, with the top of the mask curving gracefully along the top of her forehead, and the bottom drawn lightly across her cheekbones, rising and flowing across the middle of her nose and stopping at her ears. Two almond-shaped eye-holes took their respective places on the mask, with the left eye hole outlined in a mix of fiery crimson and glowing gold, while the right eye-hole was framed by silvery-blue thread. The mask was the shape of an upside down trapezoid, and was an ink-black in colour, with swirls and curls of silver and gold that started from the nose of her mask and snaked up to the very tips of the mask, with gold swirls on the left and silver on the right.

Elizabeth stared coolly back at her, hesitating only for a moment before answering,

"It suits you. Both the story and the mask. The fact that someone like you could be so hopelessly contaminated by evil, someone who is, or rather, was - as the story goes, so entirely beautiful, but became scarred on the outside through the fire, and hateful on the inside. A story truly befitting of a creature like you."

Mariette smiled, and turned to Elizabeth's closet, pulling out a dress with ruffly white and pale blue skirts decorated with lace and countless ribbons, stitched together with a pale blue corset and a dark blue overcoat. Mariette quickly pulled the dress onto Elizabeth, and laced the corset efficiently, helping Elizabeth into a dark-blue overcoat with puffy sleeves and lace lining at the wrists that stopped at just below her waist. Mariette picked out a pair of white gloves with dark blue lining and pulled them onto for Elizabeth, adding a pair of silky blue ankle boots with white pantyhose to the mix. Mariette smoothly switched to brushing Elizabeth's golden locks, and pulled her curly golden hair into two whimsful ponytails and threaded in a pale blue ribbon to complete the look.

She fluidly lifted the teapot and poured a stream of gold-brown tea into the delicate teacup, and handed the cup to Elizabeth, watching as she took a sip.

"Earl Grey?" Elizabeth asked, more to herself than to Mariette.

"Good guess, my lady, but that tea is - " Mariette answered.

"Baroness Gray? Very subtle Earl Grey tones with touches of citrus and floral tastes." Elizabeth ended.

"Correct. It is a very lively tea." Mariette said, and then turned to face Elizabeth. "You may have to be careful today, my Lady. There is news..."

"Of what?" Elizabeth asked, her eyes clear and curious.

"Ciel Phantomhive will likely be kidnapped today, by Azuro Venere of the Ferro family." Mariette answered in a monotone.

Elizabeth stared at Mariette, her eyes wide with panic, and Mariette smiled innocently back, reveling in the panic Elizabeth felt.

"Then we must save him." Elizabeth answered sharply, as she collected herself. "Ciel cannot die yet."

"You know we cannot interfere with fate." Mariette replied, in the same monotone as before. "I can use my Sight only to predict future events, but I cannot stop them. Neither can you."

"Is there nothing we can do?" Elizabeth asked, her eyes dark and determined, as if she expected there to be an answer, and if there were none, she would defy Mariette anyway.

"We cannot stop the kidnapping, but we can save Ciel after he is kidnapped," Mariette replied, her mouth curving into a devious smile, "but if I am to save your dear Ciel, I may need a little bit extra for my meal..."

Elizabeth glanced at the other girl, and responded wearily,

"Fine. Do you want to feed now or later?"

"Now."

Mariette responded, as she gently placed her hands on Elizabeth's shoulders and leaned towards her pale neck. Mariette opened her blood-red lips to reveal a pair of sharp white fangs, and lightly pushed the other girl's golden curls to a side, almost immediately sinking her fangs into the pale white neck that was revealed. Elizabeth stiffened, and relaxed, as a wave of happiness washed over her, followed swiftly by another wave of complete peace, and continued with a multitude of other emotions that were just as positive and enlightening as the ones before.

When Mariette finished feeding, she reached into the folds of her dress and took out a snow-white handkerchief along with a roll of bandages and a dark blue ribbon that had a small white silk rose stitched on. She daintily wiped her mouth with the handkerchief and folded it up immediately afterwards. It was unusual though, to see that as soon as the blood from her lips touched the handkerchief, it disappeared as if it were never there. Mariette took the bandage and gingerly wrapped it around Elizabeth's neck, tying it firmly. She took the dark blue ribbon and tied it over the bandage, adjusting it so that the rose was on the right side of her neck.

"Are you coming with me to the kidnapping, or am I to go alone?" Mariette asked calmly, as if she had not just been drinking blood a mere moment ago.

"I might as well come, since you'll protect me anyway, and I want to see Ciel again, "Elizabeth announced, still somewhat out-of-breath, as she was riding the afterglow that Mariette's bite induced, "now, let us go down for breakfast. Scones, I presume?"

"Just as you like them." Mariette answered, her eyes and skin bright and glowing from her 'meal'.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Afternoon - Phantomhive Manor

"Griel..." A red haired lady reprimanded.

"Y-Yes?" The mouse-like man with glasses who the lady was talking to replied.

"Watch and learn." She said.

"Y-Yes..." He replied, breathing a sigh of relief.

"In any case..." The lady said, her face solemn.

"You really are a fine man!" She said as she started fondling the red-eyed man beside her, her eyes glassy and adoring, "Why don't you stop serving at a manor and work for us?"

The other three occupants of the room, a Chinese man who always seemed to have his eyes closed, the little Chinese girl in his lap, and lastly, a boy with gray-black hair and one sapphire blue eye, all stared incredulously at the red-haired lady. The other eye on the blue-eyed boy was hidden behind an elegant black eye-patch.

The boy with blue-gray hair now had a vaguely annoyed expression, and gave a loud 'Ahem' saying,

"Madame Red!"

The red-haired lady looked sheepishly at the boy, and replied,

"Oh my, Pardon me, I starting kneading him without realizing it. I wonder if it's just a doctor's habit?"

In a bush outside the window of the manor, Mariette and Elizabeth stared at the hectic scene inside the room, Elizabeth with a pair of binoculars, and Mariette through her mask with her already sight-enhanced eyes. Elizabeth was focused mainly on the blue-eyed boy, her eyes soft and somewhat wistful, while Mariette concentrated on the red-eyed man, immediately finding something off about him.

"Lady Elizabeth?" She whispered.

"Yes?" Elizabeth answered absentmindedly.

"That man, the red-eyed one. He's not normal." Mariette quietly declared, while thinking, _'He seems so... familiar. I don't know why, but...' _

"Sebastian? How?" Elizabeth asked, her focus now on Mariette.

Mariette didn't get a chance to answer, since the blue-eyed boy had suddenly exited the room, followed by the red-eyed man.

"It's starting." Mariette said.

Elizabeth looked towards the door, her eyes intensely worried.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Young master?"

Sebastian opened the oak-wood door that lead to the study, and peered inside, to be greeted by a scene of utter chaos. Papers were everywhere, books tossed haphazardly, and the chair for the study desk overturned and lying on a side. Most importantly though, the window was wide open, and a light summer breeze worked it's way in.

"Ah, what a predicament." Sebastian mused, "now the tea will go to waste."

He looked back at the tea set he had on a silver trolley, then turned and strolled briskly out of the room.

Mariette observed his unusual reaction, and turned to Elizabeth.

"He is very calm. Oddly so, in fact."

Elizabeth gripped her binoculars tightly, her knuckles stark-white in worry. Elizabeth looked back at her, ignoring the comment about Sebastian, and simply said.

"Find Ciel and bring him back alive, and as unharmed as you can manage." She paused for a moment, "This is a command."

Mariette looked back at the gold-haired girl and smiled, her fangs clearly visable, and her eyes momentarily flashing a bright blood-red in colour. She sank into a deep curtsy, and replied.

"Yes, my lady."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


	3. The Rescue

Kuroshitsuji 3 - Ciel

Disclaimer - I do not own Kuroshitsuji. Yana Toboso does.

_"Find Ciel and bring him back alive, and as unharmed as you can manage." She paused for a moment, "This is a command."_

_Mariette looked back at the gold-haired girl and smiled, her fangs clearly visible, and her eyes momentarily flashing a bright blood-red in colour. She sank into a deep curtsy, and replied._

_"Yes, my lady."_

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_We forget the things we once loved the most, because it hurts too much to remember losing them._

Elizabeth glanced back at Mariette for one last time, before turning away and whispering:

"Go."

Mariette calmly obeyed, and in an instant, she was gone.

Mariette ran swiftly through the trees, her polished, black high-heeled shoes eerily silent as they moved, lightening-fast, through the thick foliage of the woods. Mariette dodged the countless number of tree trunks effortlessly, as her keen eyesight led her through a zig-zagging path through the woods. She reached the other side in less than a second, and spotted a group of men carrying multiple guns, and immediately knew that these were the men that had been paid by Azuro Venere to kidnap Ciel Phantomhive. She did not intend to kill all of them, knowing that there would be no point in doing so. Instead, she planned on abducting one of the men that probably wouldn't be missed and forcibly extracting information from him. It would be more efficient that way.

Mariette took a swift look at the group, calculating the odds of each person being missed, and determining, after some quick scrutiny, she picked out a clumsy, brown-haired, blue-eyed man with a thoroughly innocent face at the very back of the group, who held his rifle like he had never shot one before. She dashed in, and snatched him out of the group without any of the other men's notice, returning swiftly into the forest. The man didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, until he suddenly found himself in the arms of a mysterious woman with a beautiful mask and unearthly eyes. He gasped in surprise, and reached for the gun in his belt that suddenly...wasn't there.

"It's a wonder how parasites like you got hold of such interesting weapons." Mariette said languidly, her voice seductively dark and smooth as chocolate, as she lazily spun his dark, oak-wood gun in her pale, elegant fingers.

The man looked back at her in fear, awe, and an unusual touch of lust.

"W-Who are y-you?" He asked, his voice strong, but shaking uncontrollably.

"It doesn't matter," Mariette replied in a sing-song voice, "don't worry, it'll all be over soon."

Her eyes flashed blood-red, and she turned to the man, tipping his chin up so that he stared directly into her eyes.

"Now, will you _please_tell me where Mr. Venere took Ciel Phantomhive?" Mariette demanded, her voice sweet but darkly devious, "Or will I have to beat it out of you?"

"H-How did you k-know?" He asked, his voice stronger but still shaking.

"So it was Mr. Venere who took the little Phantomhive," Mariette asked, her voice mocking,"now, why don't you be a good little human and tell me where dear little Ciel was taken?"

"I'm not telling you." The man said, suddenly defiant, as if defending someone out of loyalty.

"Oh well, the games are over," Mariette murmured, pulling the black gloves off her hands, "I guess we have to resort to more violent measures."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Snap. A thick, brown cigarette was raised to a smirking, coarse and darkly lined mouth.

"Just how many households have you helped," The mouth asked,

A boy with gray-blue hair and clothing made of red velvet sat sedately in chains, his legs bound, and his mid-riff wrapped in a thick leather belt.

"And how many have you crushed? Ciel Phantomhive."

The boy looked up, his face battered from countless blows, and his one blue eye stared in icy fury at the man speaking.

"So it was you after all," The boy said, as his gray-blue hair swished lightly as it covered the night-black eye-patch on his right eye.

A tanned, blonde man with a ugly pink scar that stretched from his right forehead to his left cheek lit the cigarette in his mouth.

"Azuro Venere of the Ferro family." The boy continued.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So that's where the little Phantomhive was taken." A dark-haired woman questioned, her face covered by an intricately decorated mask. She dusted her hands off, and pulled on a pair of ink-black gloves that had presently been lying on a springy bunch of bushes.

An unconscious man lay sedately against the trunk of a thick, darkly shadowed tree, and at a first glance, you would assume that nothing was wrong with the man, and that he was simply taking a nap in the cool shade of the tree. If you decided to take the time to inspect the poor man a bit more, you would find that there was something very wrong with his right arm. The right arm was, unfortunately, twisted a perfect three-hundred and sixty degrees, and the bones of the arm were most obviously not in their original position, seeing as they were popping out in a fairly grotesque manner. The skin of his arm, if you chose to lift up his sleeve to take a look, was a sickly gray colour that looked as if it were already in a state of decay. The rest of the man's body didn't seem to be damaged, but the mutilation of the arm seemed horrible enough.

"Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" Mariette asked lightly, as she gracefully walked towards the man, pulling out a silvery phone from his inside pocket.

Mariette sighed, and briefly ran her pale, delicate fingers across the man's mangled arm, and watched in disinterest as his arm snapped back in place, the bones sliding with precision into their respective sockets. The deathly gray hue of his arm receded, and a healthy pinkish-gold colour smoothly took it's place, sliding from his fingertips to his shoulder. The only difference were the silver and night-black letters that etched their way across the wrist of the unfeeling man, with a black VI written in flowing script and surrounded by a circle of glowing silver.

"He is very loyal, and has one of the strongest minds I have ever encountered in a human." Mariette mused, staring sharply at the man's innocent face, "it took me almost a minute to get into his mind, even while I subjected him to intense pain."

She reached down and touched his forehead, reaching gently into his mind and erasing his memories. She then turned away, and sped towards the Phantomhive manor, stopping only for a moment to whisper,

"He will remember when the time is right, and when he does, he will serve me with his life."

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A boy with gray-blue hair smiled sweetly, leaning his head to the right,

"It's so nice when pets do as they're told."

Slap.

The boy was knocked to the side, and knocked brutally against the ground. He flinched slightly, but made no other noticable sound.

Stomp.

The blonde man had thrown his still-smoking cigarette to the ground and stomped furiously onto it.

"Did you hear that? Negotiations are over." He barked into the phone, staring lividly at the boy still lying on the floor.

The phone was slammed back onto the pedestral, and the blonde man turned away.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mariette was currently in one of the many trees that surrounded the Phantomhive manor, looking down at the sniper she had rendered unconscious beneath her. She was now looking through the window opposite her, and listening as the butler, Sebastian read the letter given to him by one of the snipers. She had made sure to slightly hinder the sniper's aim by adjusting his rifle so that it shot just a bit more to the left, so that the butler and the maid would remain perfectly unharmed. It was odd, though, that the butler had managed to dodge the bullet the sniper shot so effortlessly, and took such pains to make sure that the pie, or whatever you had on that platter, ended up perfectly intact.

"If you want your master to be returned," Sebastian enounciated smoothly, "bring 'the item' to Bethnal Green's Nova Scotia Gardens."

"What an inelegant invitation." he added.

Mariette smirked faintly at his comment, and jumped swiftly to the ground, her eyes meeting Sebastian's for a moment, before she disappeared as if she had never been there.

Sebastian blinked, and then thought,

_Where have I seen those eyes before?_

He shook the thought from his mind, and pasted on his trademark smile, looking towards Madame Red and Lau and explaining what had happened, replacing all his thoughts of her eyes with ones of how he's going to 'save' Ciel.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mariette spotted the three snipers, or rather the two conscious snipers and the one unconscious sniper, just as they started driving off, and decided to follow them, if not just for their sake, then for the sake of seeing how Sebastian was going to get the information of Ciel's wheabouts from the men.

Mariette was able to follow the three men effortlessly, darting through the shadowy forest, despite the fact that the three men were both riding a car, while she was merely at a light jog. She listened without interest to the pointless conversation the two men were having with their boss for a few minutes, and then looked curiously towards a dark figure cloaked in the dust he was kicking up. The figure was moving incredibly quickly towards the car with the three men, and even as the two men suddenly realized the figure was there, and sped up, he was still able to match, and even increase his speed past that of the car.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A horrified scream was heard coming from the phone.

"Speed up!" A man with a brown beret yelled, causing his partner to frantically slam his foot against the accelerator.

Even as the car roared down the dirt road, the dark figure still drew closer and closer to the car.

"It's coming." The man with the brown beret whimpered.

A impeccably neat black suit with the Phantomhive emblem appeared, followed by a pair of blood-red eyes.

"Cut it out, you numbskull's." The blonde-haired man on the other end of the phone yelled tensely.

"No good. It's here." The other man yelled.

A multitude of screams ripped their way through the phone, and then there was...

Silence.

"H-Hey, what's wrong?" The blonde man asked, his voice shaking. He looked slowly towards the boy on his left.

A blue-eyed boy stared back at him, laughing mockingly, and told him,

"Looks like the game of fetch is over."

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mariette smiled faintly as she assessed the scene in front of her. The two men were staring, terrified, at the red-eyed man in front of them, their car perilously balanced at the very edge of a cliff, with the two men on the back, while Sebastian balanced the car in the front, standing motionlessly as he politely asked the two men for the phone they were holding. She was now instantly able to determine that Sebastian was not a human.

He was a demon.

A fairly powerful one as well, judging from his speed and intellect, for most demons were creatures of instinct rather than intelligence. Demons were usually quite abominable creatures, who sucked the souls from their victims without elegance or flair, slowing-moving and despicably stupid creatures that relied solely on their brute strength and massive size to bring down the humans that were their prey. Humans, though, weren't much of a challenge to kill in the first place. Humans, though not especially lacking in intellect, were notoriously slow, weak and cowardly animals, that multiplied like flies, and had an uncanny talent to quickly adapt to their surroundings. They had somehow managed to create weapons that they used, in turn, to kill other humans of their species with, which defeated the purpose of creating them.

There actually were a few demons that rose above and beyond the normal demons, in power, speed, and intellect. These elite few of the demon race were called The Seven, and all had unique eye colours, that differed from the normal mud-brown of lesser demons, as well as an ability to transform in the very likeness of a human. Their blood reflected the colour of their eyes, and because of their differences, they joined together and founded the group of seven. Sebastian appeared to be one of The Seven, with his blood-red eyes and immense intellect, though how he came to be in the service of Ciel Phantomhive was still a mystery.

Above all the animals, though, vampires still remained the most powerful. Graceful, deadly and faster, stronger and more intelligent than any animal in the world, they remained untouchable, a species that were made for survival. Their powers were endless, and they stayed at the top of the world, like kings and queens that ruled the world in the shadows. They were rare, and created only occasionally, on a whim. They found no reason to wage war, and simply traveled the world, looking for someone to pique their curiousity.

Mariette lightly placed her foot on a lower branch, and then watched as Sebastian placed the phone to his ear and talked into it, his voice as loud and clear as if he were talking right beside her.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Hello?"

A voice as smooth as honey drifted through the phone.

"I am one of the Phantomhive servants."

A blonde-haired man looked slowly towards the left, his eyes wide and fearful.

"I was just wondering if our young master had been intruding upon you?"

A drop of sweat slowly made it's way down the blonde man's cheek, dripping off the end of his chin.

"Hello?"

The voice continued, still as deceptively calm and polite as before.

"Is that the case?"

The blonde man alternately clenched and unclenched his jaw, as if he were suddenly rendered speechless.

"Hello?"

"Woof." The blue-haired boy in the corner exclaimed mockingly.

Silence.

"Understood. I shall come and collect him immediately."

The voice ended, and suddenly the connection was severed.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


	4. The Power

_Disclaimer: Kuroshitsuji belongs to Yana Toboso..._

_Memories are like jewels. Desired, treasured, beautiful beyond compare, but in the end, useless._

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sebastian smiled politely, and crouched down, handing the dark gray phone back to the two terrified men in front of him.

"Thanks for letting me borrow this." He told them, his voice entirely polite and peaceful, and in any other circumstance, where the two men were not in dire danger of falling to their deaths, they might actually have appreciated his semi-polite tone.

"I also have two or three things to inquire about." Sebastian added smoothly, unaffected by the ominous rocking of the car.

"Firstly, what is the name of your owner?"

The two men stared fearfully back.

"Please bear in mind that I am not the patient type." Sebastian continued. "You don't want to end up like Humpty Dumpty, do you?"

The two men cringed, and the one with the brown beret yelled,

"Azuro Venere of the Ferro family, his base of operations is in the northern part of East London."

Sebastian smiled darkly, his eyes closed, and then he stood up, jumping off the car and watching it tilt ever so slowly down...

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mariette followed Sebastian with her silver-tinted eyes as he got up, and sighed, her tone vaguely annoyed as she watched Sebastian jump off the purple-tinged car.

"Why do promises with Lady Elizabeth just always interfere with her orders?" She whispered venomously, "She just had to make me promise not to kill, or let anyone die in my sight..."

_"Mariette?" A sweet, timid voice tapped into her thoughts._

_"Yes, my lady?" She answered, her eyes sharp and focused directly on the pretty face of a green-eyed, golden-haired child, with a half-eaten chicken leg held delicately in a handkerchief._

_"Can I feed that dog over there." The green-eyed child whispered joyfully, already walking closer and closer to a mud-brown, bone-thin dog with golden eyes that were clouded over in madness, "Because he looks so very hu-"_

_The rabid dog lunged out, jaws snapping for the chicken-leg the child was holding in her hand, and in less than a moment, the dog was dead, lying in a puddle of it's own blood._

_The golden-haired girl's eyes widened in shock, as she suddenly let go of the handkerchief wrapped chicken-leg in her hand and let it fall, to the floor._

_Just before the leg touched the floor, though, a pale, long-fingered hand snatched it, and briskly placed it into the straw-woven basket in her arms._

_"Why...?" The gold-haired girl asked, lips trembling and eyes tearing up."Why did you kill him?"_

_Mariette stared back in a semblance of something like surprise._

_"Because it was going to bite your hand, my lady." She responded softly._

_"But...but..." The green-eyed girl sputtered, "the dog could have had a family."_

_"My lady, I do not understand what you are trying to tell me." Mariette continued, her eyes questioning._

_"That dog could have left a family, with kids who are now orphaned, and can't fend for themselves." The little girl explained, her voice shaking, "That dog might have left others who loved him."_

_"Begging your pardon, but I still don't see the relevance in that, my lady." Mariette replied, her face now stoic and yet also somewhat confused._

_The green-eyed girl sighed, and turned back to Mariette staring her straight in the eye._

_"Just promise me, swear on your life, and on your pride as my guardian," Mariette smiled ironically at the little girl's choice of words,"that you will never kill again, or allow anyone that is innocent die in your presence or sight ever again. The gold-haired girl stated solemnly._

_Mariette looked back at her, and sunk into a deep curtsy._

_"I promise, my lady." _

Mariette shook her head to clear her thoughts, ink-black curls spilling over her shoulders, and stepped slowly onto the branch below her. She disappeared, right afterwards, appearing for a moment at the car as she stood gracefully on the it's hood, her face hooded by the ink-black cloak. She watched in amusement as Sebastian's eyes widened, and then turned to pick the two men up, throwing one over her shoulder, and carrying the other in an thoroughly odd-looking bridal style. Mariette waved mockingly, and disappeared again.

Sebastian stared incredulously at the spot where the hooded figure had been only a moment ago, and then closed his eyes, regaining his customary smiling expression.

"Interesting." He said, turning away.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mariette stopped abruptly, knocked the two men out, and tossed the two men onto the ground, suddenly raking her teeth across the wrist of the man with the brown beret. She licked her lips, and then made a faintly disgusted face, before taking out her handkerchief and dabbing her lips with it. She moved her other hand swiftly over the bleeding cut, and glanced back for a moment, taking his hand and wiping a smear of bright red blood onto the other man's wrist. After a moment, she removed the hand, watching as the cut sealed up and the blood disappeared without a trace. Only the black letters of 'Mutt' that scrawled it's way across the man's skin showed that anything had happened there. The other man had the same words imprinted into his skin, though his was in a dark gold colour, rather than the customary black.

"Disgusting. The other man has potential, though." She mused. "He will be helpful."

She snapped her fingers, and in an instant, her body grew smaller, her face younger and her hair longer. At the end, she looked the very image of a 12-year-old, harmless, albeit extraordinarily beautiful child. Her eyes were a icy blue colour, her hair still a night-black hue, though it now reached to her knees, and her outfit was now a night-black dress with black tights.

She turned away, touched the forehead's of the two men, and reached for the phone she had acquired.

"Hello?"

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Azuro Venere was disturbed.

Disturbed by the frighteningly calm quality of the monster's voice. Disturbed by the fact that this monster, who was as fast, no, faster than a car and stronger than anyone he had ever known, was coming to his hideout.

"The Phantomhive's guard dog is on his way here." He yelled. "Guard the walls, don't even let a single mou-"

Ring-ring-ring.

He looked fearfully towards the phone, and inched his hand tentatively towards it, picking it up as if it were a ticking bomb.

"Hello?" A beautifully dark voice worked it's way through the phone.

"Mr. Venere?"

He stared towards the boy on his left.

"My name is The Cat."

The blonde man's hand shook slightly as it awkwardly held his red and gold adorned phone. The Cat was known to be one of the most highly prized assassins of the British Underworld. In fact, her influence and power were so great in the Underworld, that the assassin herself was able to blatantly refuse countless jobs, only occasionally branching out for a job that peaked her interest. Her rates of payment were unbelievably high for most jobs, though the ones that peaked her interest were done for no payment at all. She had a frightfully clean track record, and had finished up to 200 jobs where criminals had disappeared, with her handiwork, without a trace. She hadn't been seen for around 2 years, and it was believed that she had died. It must have been something that was of intense interest to her that would have driven her out of her seclusion, and when she went after something that was a great curiosity to her, you never wanted to be in her way. She was a weapon more lethal than anything in the world when let loose.

"Don't kill the dear little Phantomhive, or his little servant," The voice continued, as dark and seductive as ever with an undertone of the most absolute evil. "Or you may find yourself facing some rather...dire consequences that I trust you don't want to face.

The blonde man shuddered instinctively at the masked threat that was given on the other side of the phone.

"Do you understand?" The voice whispered, now in a hauntingly harsh tone that commanded respect.

The blonde man slammed down the phone, fearfully staring towards the Phantomhive boy who lay in a bloody heap.

"Don't let anything get in," He yelled, fear causing his voice to increase in volume. "not a human, not a single animal, not even a fly."

"I'm not letting any of those fucking morons get in my way," Azuro added, his eyes now half-crazed in fear. "Especially not those two, since they're both-"

"_Monsters_."

The gray-haired boy ended, his voice coldly soft.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A mass of men armed with mounds of weapons guarded the entrance to a sizable ivory mansion with countless Greek columns. Hundreds of men held their guns at the ready, as if waiting for an army to attack them. Instead, they were presented with a single man.

"My, what a splendid mansion." Sebastian observed.

"Who the hell are you?" A blue-eyed, brown-haired man spat, his eyes wide in astonishment. He motioned for the other men to proceed, and so they surrounded Sebastian in a deadly semi-circle of guns.

"Now that isn't really polite, is it?" A hooded figure drawled, leisurely sitting on of the banisters and watching the scene proceed with heartened curiosity. "Aren't guests supposed to be more heartily welcomed?"

The blue-eyed man turned to the hooded figure and gaped, wondering what exactly his boss had been paying him to protect the mansion against.

Sebastian turned around for a moment to stare at the hooded figure, before looking back at the circle of men that were pointing their guns at him, and replying,

"Ah. I beg your pardon. I am one who serves in the Phantomhive mansion."

The hooded figure stretched, glancing around her at the mounds of men that were currently pointing their guns at her.

"And my name," the hooded figure added, "is The Cat."

Sebastian looked back again, startled by the odd choice of name, and observed the hooded figure more closely. By the choice of name, the figure was most likely female, and thus the small figure could be accounted to. She was sitting nonchalantly on the smooth banister, still retaining a nimble, and yet curiously feline grace that resounded through her very being, even though she was immovable at the moment. Her face and body were mainly covered, and so he was unable to determine her features, though the pair of slim, folded legs that clothed in black tights were something to be remembered. He studied the figure for a moment longer and returned to his primary goal - disposing of these annoying mice that were posing as a minor hindrance.

Mariette's eyes flashed blood-red, and then she opened her hand and lazily cracked her fingers, smirking at the looks of horror the men gave her after they heard her name. She then reverted back into a bored expression, jumped off her banister, and lazily swung her foot around in an impatient circle, smashing into the faces of the men around her with tremendous force, and knocking the men out in less than a second. She then turned back to her banister, looking back at Sebastian's fight.

She watched as Sebastian annihilated the massive troop of men in less than a minute, and interjected only when she saw him going in for the kill. She jumped down from the banister, and blocked his white-gloved hand with ease, directing a hard poke towards the targeted man's head, knocking him out immediately. She then pushed his arm towards another man, making sure that his lethal hand was aimed at a place which would only knock the man out.

Sebastian blinked in surprise as the hooded figure intervened, and then understood that as long as he didn't kill any of the men there, she would help him and speed up the amount of time needed to finish the fight off. It was sometimes profitable to acquire the help of another person, though it was very rare to find another person, demon or otherwise, that matched him, and perhaps even surpassed him in speed and strength. He felt something unnaturally familiar about this scene, though, as if... he had done this before, with someone -

_Soft green eyes, curly hair the colour of an endless midnight._

_The delicate touch of a hand with alabaster skin. _

_A fierce kick that shattered bone._

_The underlying, hesitant trust that he felt as someone covered his back in a fight._

_A soft, sweet kiss with the faintest taste of chocolate and strawberries._

_A smile that lit up his world._

Sebastian paused, his eyes dark in remembrance, stiffening as the memories flooded his head, and relaxing as they faded away. He shook off the misty haze the memories gave his mind, and continued his fight, focusing on his objective. They finished up the fight in a few seconds, and then Mariette gestured politely for Sebastian to continue ahead of her. Sebastian simply nodded his head in thanks and continued on, snapping his pocket watch open for a moment and whispering,

"5:34."

He closed the watch and stepped into the next room, not noticing Mariette as she quietly snapped her fingers and smiled as a dark burgundy haze floated over the countless men behind them. The haze drifted over them as their bones snapped back into place and their blood disappeared, floated back into their bodies and was sealed up as their skin closed up and molded back into their original placement. The red haze touched down on their foreheads as well, meticulously erasing all memories of the past event.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sebastian made his way through the mob of gunners, knocking them out effortlessly with the china plates placed on the white-clothed table. He made sure not to cause them any lethal harm, as he did not want to inspire the wrath of the hooded figure behind him. The figure in question was trailing behind Sebastian with ease, sporadically deflecting a bullet or two so that it ripped through the metal of the attacking man's gun and clipped his head in turn. She also flung out glimmering steel needles that deflected the bizarrely deadly silver forks and knives that Sebastian was throwing with flawless precision towards his helpless human targets so that they only clipped their targets on the head, insuring the fact that they passed out from the pain but weren't fatally injured. In about a minute after that, they, or rather he, since the hooded figure didn't offer any real help, was done.

"My, my. That took up quite a bit of time." Sebastian calmly asserted, as he hung upside down on a gloriously gold chandelier much like a rather over-sized bat.

"It's because you just weren't fast enough," The hooded figure added in a taunting voice, as she sat, legs crossed, on the very top of the chandelier. "Mr. Sebastian Michealis.

Sebastian ignored the figure, though Mariette could she the tiniest flash of annoyance cross his face before he dropped agilely down to the floor, coat-tails flapping lightly, and pulled out his pocket-watch again to consult the time.

"5:43 pm."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A blonde man held his gun in a shaking hand, like a mouse awaiting the arrival of a ferociously hungry cat. Or rather, in this case, one ferociously hungry cat and another curiously lethal one. His eyes were widened in fear, as he waited silently for the two 'cats' to appear.

The magohany oak door swung open, and the first cat appeared, in the shape of a tall, slender man stepped through, his eyes a dark burgundy in colour, and his hair chin-length, falling in two black curtains on each side of his face. He bowed smoothly, raising his right hand to his heart, and accounted,

"I have come to collect my master."

"Huh. I'm surprised." The blonde man remarked arrogantly, "Here I was wondering what kind of monstrous man was going to appear, and it's just a Romeo in a tailcoat?"

"Just what are you?" The blonde man demanded, acutely aware of the beaten-up Phantomhive boy behind him. "You aren't just any butler, are you?"

"No. I am one _hell_ of a butler." Sebastian replied. "Just that."

Mariette, who was currently hiding in the shadows behind the red-eyed butler, gave a silently amused laugh at the audacity of his comment.

"I see." The blonde man expressed fearlessly, after seeing that Sebastian did not pose any immediate threat, he still wondered though, where and when The Cat would be arriving.

"At any rate, I have no intention of going at it with you." Azuro Venere continued. "but you know,"

Azuro reached down and roughly pulled up the Phantomhive boy by his gray-blue hair and revealing his inflicted wounds. He smirked at Sebastian's semi-shocked face, and pointed his steel-plated gun at the side of blue-eyed boy's head.

Mariette glanced indifferently at the Phantomhive boy's wounds, and noted that she would have to heal them later.

"You brought the item, right?" Azuro spat.

"Yes." Sebastian answered emotionlessly, reaching into his swallow-tailed coat to pull out a gold-plated key.

A bullet smashed brutally through his head only a moment later, and Sebastian only had the time to register a face of imminent surprise, before a dozen more ruthlessly pumped into his body.

"Seba-" The Earl of Phantomhive could only choke out that much before he stopped to watch the bullets ravage his butler's body.

Just before the butler's hole-punched body plummeted to the floor, a black-gloved hand shot out of the darkness behind him, and caught him effortlessly, placing him gently to the floor. No one else in the room, other than Ciel Phantomhive himself witnessed this, and thus the figure drew silently back into the shadows.

The four men behind the gray, ripped-through painted stepped clumsily through the hole, still holding their smoking guns in an offensive position, and stepped towards the man who they had just murdered in cold blood.

Azuro laughed insanely, a high-pitched laugh that resounded through the room.

"Sorry, Romeo. Looks like I win this game." He announced, "The opponent was a master of games, Lord Phantomhive, but I had an ace up my sleeve.

A slight figure stepped into the room, raising her hands up in a mock 'peace' sign, and watching the four gunmen around her carelessly.

Azuro's eyes widened as he stared towards the hooded figure at his door, wondering how such a slight figure could have gotten so easily into his mansion.

"Oh my. It seems that the little mouse decided not to listen to the big, bad, cat." A dark, chocolate-smooth voice spread into the room, and chills ran down the Venere man's spine. He didn't know who this person was, but he knew she was not any normal person.

"Didn't I tell you specifically that the boy and his butler were not supposed to be harmed?" The figure questioned, her voice now a harsh purr.

Azuro looked back defiantly, his composure just as angry as before, and spat, "Who the hell are you?"

Mariette glanced back at the man, shaking her head in amusement.

"My name is the Cat." She replied.

Azuro paused for a second, and then burst into crazed laughter.

"You? The mighty assassin known as the highest-paid and most lethal person in the British Underworld?" He was now laughing so hard his gun shook, "A little girl who likes wearing cloaks and knows some street-fighting?"

Mariette simply smiled back at the laughing man. A smile that a intellectual would direct at some poor, under-educated weakling. It was unfortunate that Azuro could not see it.

Azuro sneered back at the hooded figure, and told her,

"If you so much as twitch, I'll bury a bullet into your head."

Mariette looked amused, and decided to wait a little while to see how this all played out.

Azuro, satisfied that the hooded figure was safely threatened, turned to the Phantomhive boy.

"It seems that I've roughed you up a little," He lifted up the boy by his hair, "For you, I bet, more than other bits, your eyeball will get the most."

He slipped Ciel's eye-patch off with his silvery gun, and Mariette watched with carefully concealed interest to see what would happen.

"Don't worry, you don't have to be afraid, since by the time you get completely messed up..." Azuro continued.

"Hey, how long do you intend to mess around?" The Phantomhive boy asked, directing his question at both the seemingly lifeless figure on the ground, and, surprisingly, the hooded figure in the corner.

"How long are you going to pretend to sleep?" The boy addressed Sebastian, next turning to the hooded figure, "and you, how long are you going to pretend to be harmless?"

"Smart boy, aren't you?" Mariette asked, smiling, "No wonder she likes you."

Mariette disappeared, and in an instant the four men around her were screaming, as she snapped their guns and their arms like twigs.

"What? What did you do to them?" Azuro asked, his eyes now wide and dumbfounded.

She then reached down and tapped Sebastian on the shoulder, whispering,

"Wake up, Mr. Demon."

Sebastian stared up at the figure in shock for a moment, and then simply smiled, clenched his gloved hand, and stretched slowly upwards.

"T-That's impossible!" Venere exclaimed.

"My, my. Modern guns really have improved." Sebastian continued, as he leaned back, cracking his back, and moving slowly upwards from his stretch until he was standing completely upright. "They are completely different from those of a hundred years ago.

He then opened his blood-covered hands, showing them the multiple bullets in his hands.

"I shall return these to you." He added menacingly, before tossing them towards the chests of the four writhing men beside him.

Mariette dug her hands into her pockets, and threw the nearly invisible needles in her hands towards the bullets, deflecting them slightly to the side so that they buried themselves into the legs and arms of the men, instead of their chests.

"Oh my. My clothes are full of holes." Sebastian added, as Azuro abruptly let go of his hold on Ciel's gray-blue hair.

"Well, that can be easily fixed, Mr. Demon." The hooded figure informed him, smirking. Mariette snapped her fingers, and the torn threads of his suit wove themselves together into the same flawless condition it was less than a minute ago.

"Thank you." Sebastian addressed her politely but with an inscrutable curiosity that was directed solely at her odd appearance.

"It's not polite to stare, Mr. Demon." She reprimanded him as his stared unabashingly at her outfit, staring into the hood to try to see what she really looked like.

"My apologies." He said, and took one final glance into her hood before turning back to Ciel and Azuro Venere.

Sebastian walked forward slowly, stiffening slightly as he felt the hooded figure follow right behind him with light, graceful steps.

"I-If you get any closer, I'll shoot him." Azuro yelled as a final attempt to stop the two 'cats' in front of him.

"Hurry up. His breath stinks." Ciel demanded haughtily.

"Be a little more polite when you're asked someone to save you, Ciel Phantomhive." Mariette murmured, as she stepped closer and closer to the shaking man.

"If I get any closer, you'll be killed." Sebastian replied, smirking.

"You bastard. Are you trying to break the contract?" Ciel growled.

"Now, now. No need to fight over such a petty thing." Mariette told them, smiling mockingly, "You really shouldn't have made a contract either, Phantomhive. You'll lose everything you've ever cherished when it's over. Everything." She ended on a wistful note.

Sebastian and Ciel both took a brief look at her in shock, Sebastian amused, and Ciel calculating and cold.

"How do you know about that?" Ciel implored.

"It's because I have a contract of my own, little boy." Mariette answered lightly, her tone dark and smooth. "And my contract allows me to take just as much as your demon, though I take the elixir of their life rather than their soul.

"The elixir of their life?" Sebastian interrogated, now fully curious.

"What the hell are you three talking about?" Azuro yelled, cutting brusquely into their conversation.

"Ah. How annoying. The little mouse just had to butt into our delicious conversation." Mariette sighed.

"Sebastian..."

"You know what to do, young master." Sebastian retorted politely.

"This is an order. Save me this instant!." Ciel's right eye opened wide, and the pattern of a five-pointed star surrounded by multiple spikes inside his eye glowed a luminescent purple.

"Shut up." Azuro snapped in a maniacal voice, and he pulled the silver trigger on his gun, trembling from the recoil.

The bullet flew in slow motion towards Ciel's head, and in that imperceptible measure of time, two hands, one white-gloved and the other black-gloved, reached and caught the bronze-coloured bullet, snapping it in two neat, identical and yet opposite halves.

Ciel turned his head towards Azuro, and stared eerily into his eyes.

"Why isn't he dead?" Azuro thought aloud.

"Is this what you're looking for?" Two voices, one deep and gold-toned, and the other smooth and lilting like liquid silk, intertwined into the same question. Two hands, one white-gloved and the other black-gloved reached out, two identical and yet opposite halves of the same bullet in two hands, one on the right, and the other on the left.

"I shall return it to you." Sebastian told him, followed by Mariette's soft murmur of "Little mice shouldn't play with big, bad, cats."

Sebastian dropped his half of the bullet into Azuro's breast pocket, and Mariette flicked hers in with his. As soon as the halves both made their way into his pocket, Azuro shuddered and screamed in torment as he felt his right arm twist haphazardly into a mutilated corkscrew, and his left leg shatter into dozens of pieces.

Mariette snapped her fingers and the leather restraints on Ciel's fragile body were immediately cut into dozens of perfect leather squares, and fluttered daintily to the ground. She then watched as Sebastian lifted Ciel up a bridal embrace, walking towards the exit, and as Ciel told Sebastian,

"The game wasn't all that fun this time." He then turned to her, staring at where her eyes would be if she had not been wearing a hood.

"I thank you for your help. However, it would be appreciated greatly, if next time you did not interfere with the Phantomhive's business." He implored politely.

"Hey, you two. Wait!" Mariette ignored the man and continued walking alongside the butler and his master.

"You're welcome, Ciel Phantomhive, but I cannot promise not to help you again if you end up in a situation akin to the one you were currently in." Mariette answered, her voice dark and unreadable.

She stepped towards Ciel, and courteously asked,

"Now, may I?"

Before pointing to his wounds and looking back up towards both the butler's and the Phantomhive boy's face. Ciel nodded lightly, and Mariette drew off her glove, revealing a pale, long-fingered hand. She ran her fingers over Ciel's arm, and then gingerly touched his cheek, smiling at his look of surprise. The wounds all over his body sealed up at once, and the blood that trailed down his cheek disappeared into thin air.

"Come and be my bodyguards," The blonde-haired man desperately begged, "I'll give you five, no ten times the pay he's giving you, and the same amount for you," The blonde man directed his gaze to the black-cloaked figure standing beside the boy in his chair.

Sebastian gently placed the blue-eyed boy on a light purple sofa, and looked towards the blonde man.

"I'll give you all the woman and alcohol you want, and as many jewels and dresses you want, so please..."

Mariette laughed, a cold and harshly defined laugh that shook it's way into the soul of the blonde man. She strolled slowly towards his side, and leaned down, using one long, slender finger to tip up the blonde man's chin and draw him closer, so that he looked straight into her icy-blue eyes.

"I am something more than you pathetic humans, Mr. Venere. I seek mysteries and take the liquid that powers life as my nourishment, so I have no use for whatever you humans try to bribe me with." Mariette explained to him, her voice venomous and as sharp as a knife.

"Because I am something that will live on forever." Her eyes turned the same silver as before, but with a hypnotic quality that drew the blonde man to her, like a moth to a flame. The colours of her eyes flickered, swirling in a sea of iridescence that consumed the mind of the blonde with a frightening finality. The side of the room she was standing in grew steadily darker, until you could barely make out the stark-blonde hair on Azuro's head.

"Because I am... a vampire. Goodbye, Mr. Venere." Mariette ended faintly, her voice sweet and sing-song, as if she were singing a lullaby that would soothe the blonde man for his last sleep. His sleep of death.

The half of the room turned entirely dark, and in a moment, a brilliant, blood-red light flooded the room and a flurry of silver feathers spiraled frantically towards the ceiling, in a magnificant tornado of shimmering colour. Sebastian and Ciel both watched the display of power in fascination, Sebastian with a concealed curiously, and Ciel with a questioning amusement. In less time than it took Ciel to blink, the light and feathers disappeared, and there was nothing left but a silent room with only the two of them inside it.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


	5. The Hint

Disclaimer: Kuroshitsuji belongs to Yana Toboso...etc.

_You might forget sorrow. You might forget joy. You might even forget love. Hatred, though, is an emotion you will never forget._

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

She was dreaming.

_Grey eyes. Beautiful, intelligent grey eyes the colour of a pigeon's wings. Eyes the colour of storms and a melancholy sky, along with the ever-changing colour of the sea. She loved his eyes, his eyes that reflected everything and showed the endless depth of his intelligence. His eyes were her salvation, a place where she could feel anything and yet nothing at the same time._

_She touched his eye-lids, gently, tenderly, with long, perfect fingers that were an alabaster hue. She touched his face, and leaned in for a kiss, running her fingers through his chin-length, inky black hair that had the lightest feel of feathers - free, soft and soothing. His lips were chapped, slightly course and rough to the touch. They were lips that held a shy passion, a masterful mix of gentle seduction and rough caresses. _

_He looked back at her with those beautiful, beautiful eyes, and smiled a smile that shone with the luminescent fragility of the moon and told her,_

_"I love you."_

_She answered softly,_

_"I love you too."_

_The kiss contained the faintest hint of vanilla._

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mariette woke up to the sound of a booming and clanging racket that reverberated through the house and snuck it's way into her ears without the least of resistance.

The dream that she'd just woken from was still burned into her mind, like the imprint of a candle's flame that refused to leave your eyes even as you turned away. She suspected that her dream was actually more than a dream - it was a memory. She forgot everything after she became the creature that she was know. That was, of course, the price of becoming as powerful as she was now, as told in the alchemist's law of Equivalent Exchange. In order for one thing to be created or attained, another of equal value must be given in return. She had apparently valued her memories the most, and thus, she lost them all when she was _changed_.

Mariette didn't know whether she should regret the loss of her humanity. The change itself was a beautifully heart-wrenching thing. The metamorphosis of a caterpillar to a butterfly. The thing was, though, she had no reason why her memories were coming back, and that fact in itself made her delve deep into the layers of why, why exactly it was that she had chosen to become the_ monster_that she was now. Perhaps it was because she truthfully had nothing left to turn to, because her everything was already stolen away, purged and ripped and torn from her mind and heart so that she had nothing left. Since she truely had nothing left, why not attempt to become something better, something both more and less than a human, something that she had no reason not to become. How could the transformation take her everything from her, after all, if it was already taken away? What had she to lose? _Nothing._ It would actually be a gift to have her memories gone, so that she would never have to relive the hideous, horrible feeling of her everything being taken away. The feeling of seductive despair, a endlessly creeping insanity and always, always that ever-following presence of a tainted love. She would have forever remembered that stolen everything, and eventually would have succumbed to it's poisonous grasp. A grasp that would have snapped the silky-thin thread of her sanity. Her emotions were also missing, chopped away by the emptiness of her erased memories. She could only pretend now, go through the motions that followed an emotion, and hope for some feeling to emerge. She was alone in her emptiness.

The dream, though, had let her feel something. A tingle, the tiniest brush of an emotion. The emotion of love, or joy, or maybe even hatred. How would she know? How _could _she know?

Mariette turned and pulled on the inconveniently frilly, lacy, and puffy black dress that Elizabeth Middleford had given her for everyday wear. She also had to add a black silk ribbon outlined in silver to her hair, and had to wear immaculately white stockings trimmed with black lace and ribbon along with the black lace gloves the were customary for her appearance. The silvery-black mask was also swiftly tied on, to Mariette's disdain. It was a fairly annoying way to start off in the morning, though it didn't pose as too much of a problem, since the clothing did fit her to perfection.

She stood up fluidly, and tread lightly towards the white-painted door of her lifelessly white and black room. The door swung open, and she walked quietly out of the room, treading down the tan and auburn coloured staircase to the kitchen, which was where the noise originated.

The kitchen was a catastrophic mess, to say the least. A massive pile of metallic pots and pans were scattered haphazardly throughout the floor, and the kitchen walls, which were originally a olive green, along with the numerous kitchen appliances, were covered by sunken mounds of fine white flour and deathly black streams of an indistinguishable slime. The countertops and pots were also splattered with a substance that looked suspiciously like blood. The iron-black stove was still burning something that smelled frankly, quite horrible, and thick black clouds of blackish steam puffed out of the pipes every few moments.

At the very back of the room, a small, lithe figure lay dazed and twitching, his pale and delicate features covered by kitchen grease and occasional smears of flour.

"Ah... I think I can see the light... Is this Heaven?" He asked.

Mariette found the boy's half-conscious attempt at an observation to be faintly amusing, or at least she thought that she should, and his natural dreamy manner to be almost endearing. Almost. The state the kitchen was in didn't amuse her so much.

Mariette smilied innocently, and replied,

"No. This is _Hell_, Charles. Now why don't you tell me a _perfectly logical and plausible reason_ for why the kitchen looks like this?"

Charles looked up glassily, his blood-red hair flopping messily over one of his eyes that was a murky hazel-green in colour. A soft brown cap trimmed with olive-green cloth and decorated with one bright-red feather was pulled down over his head, covering the top of his ears and lay lopsided, cloaking his other eye in shadow. He pulled on the straps of his light brown suspenders, unconsciously tugging on the collar of his forest-green shirt at the same time, as he sunk into thought.

"Uh... Maeve dared me? So I'm still innocent?" He answered hopefully, his delicate and almost fairy-like features contorted into a questioning face. He reached out one pale, tiny hand and looked towards the taller girl as if silently asking for help.

Mariette sighed and helped the delicate-looking boy up, her gloved hand just as slender as the boy's, though she had an much larger amount of strength compared to the almost painfully weak boy she was helping up.

"Just go back to tending the garden, Charles. If it makes you feel better, Lady Elizabeth has asked for a rose garden to be planted in the south-west corner, around the fountain of horses, and has given you free rein in colouring and placing the roses." She ordered.

The red-haired boy's eyes lit up, and he hurried steathily towards the kitchen door.

"You have to clean up before you go, though." Mariette added smoothly.

Charles groaned, and turned back wearily, to start his intensive clean-up session.

Mariette stepped lightly out of the kitchen to look for 'Maeve'.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mariette was walking towards the storage room as she spotted the aforementioned 'Maeve'.

A girl with wavy auburn hair tied in a silky ponytail walked quickly down the hallway, a huge tower of teetering boxes piled upon her arms hiding her face. Mariette watched and waited patiently, as the other girl continued walking, eventually smashed into a wall at the corner and fell awkwardly downwards. Mariette simply stepped over, caught the falling boxes with both hands, and set them down gently beside the slightly stunned figure that was still lying on the floor in shock.

Mariette looked down at the girl and said,

"Maeve. Wake up."

A pair of fierce gold eyes snapped open, and a tough, yet strangely beautiful face with strong features grimaced in faux pain. Maeve's dark pink lips appeared to have a cigarette stuck between them, though the cigarette shown was not lit.

"Damn. Why am I always greeted by your absurdly shiny mask every single time I wake up from a fall? Why can't it be Charles, Adolph, or even _Lilura_, dammit?

Mariette stared back at her.

"Ok, fine. Maybe not Lilura, since her face is so perfectly _perfect_that it makes me feel nauseous just by looking at it. At least your face is covered up, even if it is a imbecilic mask that covers it."

Mariette rested her hand against the other girl's forehead.

"What the hell?" Maeve snapped.

"I am assuming that you are sick, since you have only used two faintly inappropriate words and two insults since I've gotten here, which leads me to think that you've either gone crazy, or is so deathly sick that you actually haven't insulted me to the face yet. You would usually start your sentences with an insult directed at me, Lilura or the wall you just bumped into within the first 30 seconds."

Maeve snorted, and pulled herself up into a standing position, and scooped the massive amount of boxes into her hands, turning away from Mariette.

"You nobles and your prissy-pant phrases. Just because I haven't insulted the two of you - or that ugly-ass mud-coloured wall yet," She directed a killer glare at the chocolate-coloured wall, that was innocently being, well, a wall. "doesn't mean anything. Now go away and direct your freakish blood-sucker gaze somewhere else." She ended harshly, walking swiftly away.

Maeve continued walking, only to pause for a second and hesitantly look back, opening her mouth as if to say something.

The hallway was empty.

"I hate it when you disappear like that." She muttered.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"My Lady? Is the tea fine enough for your tastes?" A rich, lilting voice asked.

"It is fine, Mariette. Very much so, in fact, where did you buy it?" A green-eyed girl replied, as she daintily lifted her pink and gold tea-cup, and lifted it to her pale pink lips.

"At the tea shop from before, my lady. It's name is the Jasmine Gold Dragon, an especially exquisite tea made of midnight jasmine flowers mixed with the classically made green tea." Mariette answered.

"Mariette?" The green-eyed girl suddenly interjected.

"Yes, my lady?" She responded.

"I want to visit Ciel." The green-eyed girl demanded, clutching her orange skirts in an agitated fashion.

Her dress was a light orange, decorated with pale yellow frills the colour of old parchment. The frills spread over the sleeves of the dress, over the skirt and spread in a thick column up to her neck, where a simple orange ribbon edged with yellowed lace encircled her neck. Another ribbon of the same colour was tied in her hair, which was, in turn, pulled into two curly blonde ponytails.

"That would not be a good idea, my lady, though if you insist, I will bring you there." Mariette said.

Elizabeth smiled faintly, and then stared critically at Mariette.

"It would probably be better if you were to appear a bit younger, since most maids are about the same age as their patrons."

Mariette nodded briefly, and closed her eyes. Her hair immediately grew slightly shorter, but was still as black and wavy as before, and her face appeared younger and fuller, still retaining the cold beauty and animalistic grace of before. Her body was still slim, but with smaller curves, and her steps seemed even lighter than before. The uniform she wore shrunk with her, and in the end, only her eyes, her feral silvery orbs with hints of blue, purple and red with gold stayed exactly the same. Only her eyes, her breath-takingly beautiful, emotionless eyes didn't change.

Elizabeth smiled, and was just starting to get up from her gold-plated chair as the alder-wood door slammed open. A grey-haired man with eyes as black as a bottomless whirlpool ran into the room, followed soon after by a woman with fine silver hair, perfect features and turquoise eyes that shone with the sheen of an unmoving ocean. The grey-haired man was dressed in a swallow-tail coat, much attuned to the usual clothing of a butler, while the silver-haired woman wore a maid outfit akin to that of Mariette's.

"Lilura, Adolph. What happened this time?" Mariette asked icily.

"Well, Madame ordered me next week not to give her any more chocolate this week no matter what she said, since she'd get fat if she ate too much, but then this week she kept on asking for chocolate, and then she got really cranky when I wouldn't give her any, and ordered me to give her chocolate, but now I don't know what to do since she gave me two orders that contradict each other and - " The silver-haired woman's ramblings were cut off sharply by Mariette.

"Give her some cake." Mariette solved instantly, turning to the grey-haired man as Lilura gave countless thanks before turning away and muttering, "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Adolph?"

"Master said that he needed a new jacket right away for a business meeting, and he picked out one in green, but the tailor said he didn't have any more green cloth, and that if he wanted his jacket, then he would have to wait for another week, but Master needs the jacket right away, and he told me to use whatever means I had to, to acquire one, but I don't know where to get one and-"

"Go to Matthew's shop. He'll get it done in no time." Mariette replied, cutting him off.

The grey-haired man's rough, yet handsome face lit up, and he thanked Mariette before strolling quickly away. Just before exiting the room, he turned back and asked curiously,

"Did you get younger, Mariette? Or is it just me."

"It's just you." Mariette replied innocently, watching as the grey-haired man exited the room with a confused look on his face.

Elizabeth smirked at Mariette, her pale fingers tapping an absentminded rhythm on her cherry-wood chair.

"It's interesting how easily fooled they are, despite the fact that they're all extremely intelligent, in the literary sense, of course. I guess it doesn't really matter about the age limit for a maid, though it was amusing to see their reactions, but it's somewhat disturbing to see you this young as well. Change back, Mariette."

"Yes, my lady." Mariette answered, and returned her body and face to the same older proportions of before.

Elizabeth studied her, not noticing Mariette's mocking half-smile, as she simply poured another golden-brown stream of tea into a gold and pink lacquered tea-cup.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Skulls.

Rows on rows of deathly, hollow-eyed skulls. Trees, bushes, and even the smallest of hedges and shrubbery were snipped into flawless, toothy skulls,

"Why skulls?" A blonde-haired man asked, his face almost blue in shock. The red-haired maid and green-eyed boy on opposite sides of him had the same reaction of utter and complete shock.

"O-Once again, I have caused a great deal of trouble." The brown-haired man with his hair secured in a ponytail topped by a large red bow apologized futilely."I'll die! I'll die and repent!" He shrieked in a horrified fashion, climbing up a wooden ladder that appeared out of nowhere and wrapping his thin neck around a thick, woolen noose.

"You don't have to die over every little thing!" The blonde man yelled angrily, as he and the two other people tried fruitlessly to convince the distraught man to refrain from killing himself.

"B-But if I don't at least hang myself, how on earth could I ever show my face again?" He screamed in a petrified manner.

"Then die." A monotonous voice pierced through the chaotic mass of noise, and a black-gloved hand reached out and pulled away the ladder he was standing on.

The brown-haired man's moss-coloured eyes widened, and his face grew increasingly more blue as his air supply dwindled. He watched as a pair of lazy silver eyes pierced into his, and stiffened in shock, effectively cutting off the last of the air in his lungs. The last thing heard in the garden was an anguished choir of voices that all said the exact same name:

"Griel?"

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"I'm sure you must be tired, young master," A deep, smooth voice declared. "I shall prepare some tea immediately."

The door was opened swiftly by a tall, black-suited man with burgundy eyes. A blue-eyed boy with an eye-patch over his right eye and gray-blue hair covered by an imposingly black top hat trimmed with blue velvet stepped inside the house.

He stepped in and was greeted by the sight of...blue and pink hangings with swaths of baby-blue silk? Adorably pink and brown bunnies with cutesy little bows in blue and pink? Magenta strips and painted hearts with golden stars over his previously majestic staircase? What had happened to his mansion? Ciel Phantomhive froze, flabbergasted by the ostenious display of colour and utter _cuteness_ that covered his once-noble mansion.

"What's the-" Sebastian peered into the house and was immediately traumatized by the sight that greeted him.

"My mansion is..." Ciel muttered.

"What on earth is this?" Sebastian added.

Three clearly terrified figures burst out of the door on their right and ran towards them, the blonde man in the middle lifting Sebastian by the collar in an act of frenzied desperation.

"Sebastian, Sebastian!" The three of them cried hysterically.

"Just what is going on here?" Sebastian demanded, directing his gaze to the almost frightening attire of the three servants. "More importantly, what on earth are you wearing?"

"Ask that crazy girl, and her evil maid." The blonde-haired man yelled, pointing towards the door they had just barged out of.

"Crazy girl?" Ciel implored curiously, looking towards the maple-wood door of the room the blonde-haired man was pointing at.

"Evil maid?" Added Sebastian, mimicking Ciel's stare towards the door.

They stepped forwards to peer into the room in question and were greeted by the sight of...

Griel hanging himself? With two huge orange bows on his head and neck?

"What are you doing?" Ciel asked suspiciously.

"As you can see... I am dying..." Griel responded in a dazed voice.

"Take him down, Sebastian." Ciel commanded.

"Understood." Was Sebastian's indifferent response.

Suddenly, a blur of orange and yellow skirts flew past Griel and Sebastian, and nearly suffocated the stoic blue-eyed boy near the door with her rib-crushing hug, screaming,

"Ciel! I missed you!" In a sugery-sweet voice that practically oozed cuteness.

The other three servants stared, wide-eyed at the unusual spectacle. The gold-haired girl who had Ciel in her tiny arms was ruffling his silky gray-blue locks and drawing him unnaturally close to her petite figure.

"Elizabeth." Ciel reprimanded.

"Ah, I'm always telling you to call me Lizzy, aren't I?" She continued, drawing him away from her to take a good look at him, and as if appraising an especially cute toy, hugging him tightly again, her face joyful and just as pretty as ever. "And this is Mariette." She waved her hand in the vague direction of her maid, a dark expression flitted through her face for only a second, before she became cutely happy again. The expression was unnoticed by Ciel, though Sebastian caught a glimpse of it, and noted it for later.

Mariette simply sunk into a deep curtsy, smiling mechanically in greeting.

"It is nice to meet you, Earl Phantomhive. My name is Mariette Amorine."

Ciel only had time to spare the maid a swift glance before Elizabeth went back to hugging him. Sebastian, however, had the time to study the maid with pitch-black hair in full.

"You just are the cutest thing ever, aren't you?" Lizzy asked, rubbing her cheek against the only semi-conscious boy's face.

A dark-haired child walked up to her, and to Ciel's immediate relief, stopped Lizzy's incessant rubbing, hugging and outright molestation of his tired body.

"My lady, I think it would be better to let Ciel rest for a moment, since he only just got back from his trip." The dark-haired girl, who appeared to be a maid of sorts, gently suggested.

"Ah, sorry Ciel. You can rest for a while now." Lizzy told Ciel, turning away to look at Sebastian.

Meanwhile, Mariette was studying Ciel with a half-lidded stare that swept from his black-laced boots, to frail figure, and eventually to his delicate features and inky-black eye-patch, that fully covered one eye. She immediately deviated, that he had formed a contract with the red-eyed demon, having his symbol of contraction embedded into his eye. The demon most likely had his on a hand, as per the tradition of their kind. The boy's eyes were almost sad. Eyes that had seen far too much for their age and time, eyes that knew hatred and loneliness all too well. Ciel Phantomhive had the eyes of a broken little boy, a boy that grew vicious and cunning, and would sacrifice many things to get what he wanted. In the deepest part of his cerulean eyes, though, there was the tiniest hint of a regret. An envy and a never-ending regret, a weary longing for a life that was anything but his own.

Ciel was also observing her, from her impeccably kept maid uniform to her ebony gloves, and to her charcoal ringlets and lastly, to the silver-trimmed mask that covered the features of her face. Everything, seemed perfectly normal about the slender figure, with the exception of her silvery eyes. Her eyes were the only part of her that made her seem different. Silvery eyes with the hint of sharp intellect and a murky mix of unreadable emotions that gave the odd aura of a predator. Something deadly, more lethal and a thousand times more frightening than anything else in the world lay in the depths of those sterling eyes, devoid of any emotion or true feeling. They were the eyes of a doll. He would have to get Sebastian to get some information on her, since it seemed unlikely that Elizabeth had just hired her on a whim.

"Decorated him?" Sebastian questioned quietly.

"See, look. It's so much cuter, isn't it?" Elizabeth answered happily, spreading her arms and showing off her handiwork.

"Cutely hideous." Mariette snickered softly, making sure that no one heard her. Sebastian though, and smiled for a split second, before turning away slowly.

"My mansion has..." Ciel repeated in a fatigued voice.

"There shouldn't be anything but the cutest things in this mansion!" Elizabeth exclaimed enthusiastically. "Isn't that right, Antoinette?"

A thoroughly mutated picture of Tanaka with puffy golden curls popped up, much to the horror of the three servants.

"Tanaka, too?" Sebastian said.

Elizabeth continued rambling on, to Ciel, and placed a neon-pink baby bonnet on Sebastian's head, which earned a lazy smirk from the maid, and mounds of silent laughter from the other servants. After Sebastian sent them a death glare, they weren't so eager to laugh anymore.

Mariette turned to the annihilated servants, smiling beatifically, which earned a blush from the two blonde men, and an admiring glance from the red-headed girl.

"Hello. I'm Mariette, it's nice to meet you. If I may ask, what are your names?" She appealed, her voice hyptonic and lilting.

"I-I'm Finny." The smaller blonde-haired boy answered timidly.

"I'm Maylene! It's nice to meet you too." The red-headed girl replied.

"I'm Bard." The blonde-haired man gave.

Elizabeth continued her rant on the cuteness of the room, and abruptly asked suggested that they should dance, which made Ciel look a bit apprehensive. Elizabeth then pushed Ciel into Sebastian, insisting that he wear the clothes that she picked out for him, because they would be 'really cute on him'. She then raced out of the room, dragging Griel along with her while saying that she had to do her make-up. Ciel seemed quite annoyed that Elizabeth didn't listen to a single word he said, and kept telling her to 'listen to what other people are saying'.

Mariette watched the hectic change of events with an icy ease, moving only when Elizabeth said that she had to do her make-up. She followed Elizabeth out the door, seated her on a purple-velvet stool, and took out her cosmetics bag, dusting on concealer with a puff-ball, and lightly encircling the other girl's jade-green eyes with a line of gold and dark-green, as well as sweeping on a layer of the blackish goop onto her lashes, to make her eyes look brighter. She also dressed her in yet another one of her incredibly frilly dresses, though this one was red in colour and was decorated with roses, leading to a more mature outlook. Mariette didn't see the reason for the massive amount of powdery coloured things that humans rigorously applied to her eyes, though that was, of course, the reason why humans interested her so much. They did things for such inconceivably imbecilic reasons, and thus continued to remain ever so unpredictable.

Elizabeth returned to the living room, and after a short while, starting complained about the large amount of time Ciel was taking, and told Mariette to go take a look. Mariette obeyed her orders, and found Ciel Phantomhive... dancing with his butler? Ciel turned an unsightly shade of blue, and started sputtering in explanation for what she had just witnessed.

"I'm sorry for intruding upon you. Lady Elizabeth asks when you'll be ready for the dance." Mariette relayed robotically, as if she had not just witnessed the young lord dancing with his butler. "And if you need any lessons on how to dance, I would be more than glad to assist you, as you are very dear to my mistress." Mariette added thoughtfully afterwards.

Ciel narrowed his eyes in suspicion, turning to Sebastian in question, and turned back as Sebastian told him,

"It would not be a bad idea to let the young lady help you, young master, for she is the correct height and most likely has more expertise at dancing than I do."

Ciel gave a barely imperceptible nob, and laid one hand on her shoulder, clasping her black-gloved hand with his other. To his surprise, Mariette was a fairly graceful and patient instructor, and did not make even the smallest of sounds when he occasionally stepped on her feet, instead urging him on gently, and soon he began to be able to dance more confidently.

"Smile, young master, as if you were having fun. No lady would want to dance with a scowling man." Mariette told Ciel, using one of her finger to draw a miniature smiley face lightly across his hand. She noted the swift darkening of expression the young Phantomhive adhered to, and waited for his response.

"I have long forgotten...how to laugh as if I were having fun." He whispered softly, his expression sorrowful.

"Then let Elizabeth help you remember. Let your servants and your fiancee make you feel happiness." Mariette responded, her voice like liquid silver in it's beauty. Ciel jerked slightly backwards in surprise, and noted that she had neither included herself, or Sebastian into the sentence, and even as he looked deep into her eyes, he still couldn't tell why. Sebastian also heard the lapse, and noted it again for investigation.

Ciel noticed that her fingers were long and elegant, intertwining with his own in a beautiful way. He also was able to study her face, or rather her mask in close vicinity.

"Why do you wear that mask?" Ciel asked absentmindedly, unwary of the answer that was to follow.

There was a silence. "Because my face is scarred by the same fire that killed my family." Mariette replied bitterly, as if it had actually happened. It amused her internally to see the reaction of the boy, who had his family die under the same circumstances as hers, apparently. She released the grip she had on his hands, and turned away politely, as Sebastian glanced at her face in a misguided attempt to read her emotions.

Ciel stepped away in shock, his face flashing through a scroll of emotions. There was sadness, and then anger and hatred, followed by something like pity. He looked at her silently, and drew away,

"I apologize for my rudeness." He muttered softly.

"It's fine." Was Mariette's only answer, as she politely gestured towards the door.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Leave it at that." A decadent, darkly laced voice drifted down the stairs, as a boy dressed in a frilled royal blue coat and paler blue vest, with a top hat of the same colour cocked slightly to the side, descended the stairs. A black-haired man with burgundy eyes, and a silver-eyed woman with raven curls, descended the staircase alongside the boy.

"Ciel! You really are cute!" A blonde-haired woman in a velvety red dress exclaimed.

The blonde girl ran eagerly up the boy, and began swinging him around and around, knocking his hat off in the process.

"I really have an eye for this sort of thing!" She continued, promptly stopping to take a look at a ring the boy had on his thumb.

"Ciel...What about the ring I prepared for you?" She asked menacingly, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "There was a cute one that matched your clothes, wasn't there?"

"This one is fine." The blue-eyed boy replied in a dead-pan voice.

"No way, after I went to the trouble of making everything so cute, to have your ring be the only thing not cute." Elizabeth whined, switching from an annoyed to an angry look in a manner of seconds.

"My Lady, it's fine. There isn't much of a difference anyway." Mariette softly told her.

"Are you saying that you don't want the ring I gave you?" She continued, crying comically in despair at his missing ring, "How horrible!"

"It's not that. This ring is.." Ciel tried to explain.

"Lady Elizabeth, that ring is a precious hei-" Mariette added in vain.

Elizabeth developed an evil glint in her eyes, and ran over to Ciel, snatching the ring from his finger.

"Lizzy!" Ciel hissed in annoyance brimming on anger.

"It really is too big for you, the one I got you is just right-" She rambled.

"Give it back!" Ciel snapped, voice raised in anger. The three servants along with Elizabeth flinched from the harshness of his voice.

"My lady, I think you should give the ring back to the young master." Mariette interjected softly.

"Why are you getting so angry? I went out of my way and..." Elizabeth pleaded, ignoring Mariette. Ciel's eyes narrowed.

"My Lady. That ring is probably very im-" Mariette added.

"What is it? I was just trying to make everything cuter... So why are you getting so angry?" The blonde-haired girl continued a look of anger on her face.

"I **_hate_** this ring!"

The blue-stoned ring flew in slow motion to the ground, and shattered into tiny pieces. Ciel's eyes widened in fury, and he stomped over, his hand raised to strike.

Two hands, one white-gloved and the other black-gloved restrained the boy's hand, one in a firm, but gentle grip and the other in an almost angry vise-like one.

"I would trust you not to strike my mistress, _Earl Phantomhive_." Mariette said, her voice as cold as ice, and her eyes, as Ciel looked into them, like two emotionless silver knives, with a gleaming point of blood-red mixed in. She was nothing like the kind-hearted girl who had been in his study only a few minutes ago. This was someone entirely different. Someone to be frightened of. Her eyes had sent shivers down his spine. "I apologize on her behalf, though even if she broke one of your precious heir-looms, there is no reason to strike her. It is inexcusable to hit a lady."

The ebony-haired girl released her grip on the blue-eyed boy's arm, as if he were some kind of disgusting bug, and stepped lightly towards Elizabeth, a snow-white handkerchief offered up to cover her face. Mariette leaned down quietly and sternly told Elizabeth.

"That ring was one of the Phantomhive's greatest treasures. A one-of-a-kind ring passed down through many generations. It must have been very important to the Earl."

Sebastian gave a curious glance at Mariette, as if asking how she came to know that. There was no reply given.

Elizabeth nodded in understanding, and weepily told Ciel,

"T-That precious of a ring, I... Ciel I'm..."

The blue-eyed boy turned silently and walked towards the window.

He tossed the the ring out the window.

Mariette looked back to pin-point the exact position of where it would have landed, deciding to pick it up later, taking the time now to mimic the shocked look of most of the people in the room.

"Ciel? What are you doing?" Elizabeth exclaimed.

"It doesn't matter. It was nothing but an old ring." He responded tiredly.

Mariette snorted silently at his obvious lie.

"How long do you intend to cry for?" Ciel demanded irritably. "You look horrible. Not anything like a girl I would ask to a dance."

"Smooth, Ciel. Real smooth." Mariette whispered under her breath, laughingly, as she watched Sebastian start to play the violin. She stepped up the stairs and joined him, with a silver-toned flute that had a voice like a nightingale. She watched, laughing as Griel joined in with his surprisingly rich alto voice.

Ciel and Elizabeth glided smoothly over the floor, both not exceptional dancers, but it was beautiful nevertheless, to watch as they twirled, Elizabeth gleefully laughing and even Ciel giving into a grudging smile.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sebastian and Mariette were both attending to the clean-up of the rooms that Elizabeth had 'made cuter' when Sebastian suddenly stopped, and stretched out a hand to Mariette.

"May I have the pleasure of being both your first and last dance for today, my lady?" He enunciated, smiling charmingly.

Mariette, deciding to play along, replied.

"I would, my dear lord." She placed a black-gloved hand in his, and in a swirl of skirts, they were dancing.

They skimmed through the Vienna Waltz with a performance of dancing that was utterly perfect in it's delicacy. Like two black ravens gliding through a clear blue sky, they danced, flitting and twirling in a awe-inspiring perfection, moving perfectly in sync. It was almost as if they had danced together before, a million times through in the same elegant, sweeping motions they danced. Eventually, they unconsciously moved into a fiery tango, where, once again, the two were perfect in both their steps and their passion.

"Who are you, Mariette Amorine?" Sebastian implored lightly.

Mariette twirled once, spinning away from Sebastian, and lightly answered,

"Who are you, Sebastian Michealis? A demon? Or just one hell of a butler?"

Sebastian stiffened, his eyes wide, but continued the sequence of steps in the tango. Mariette found herself feeling uncomfortably close to the other man, and attempted to draw away, only to be stopped by the tight grip of the demon's hands on her back.

"What are you?" Sebastian mused, "A threat or an ally, my dear little_ Cat."_

"I truthfully have no idea, Mr. Michealis." Mariette answered, her eyes serene, and suddenly, her voice darkened, and became more beautiful in it's tone. "Even if I told you, would you truly believe me?" She whispered into his ear, taking off one of her gloves in a flourish.

"Perhaps. It all depends on whether or not you're willing to cooperate, Mariette." He hissed her name and drew the arm he had on her waist in possessively.

Mariette swung back lightly into the taller man's arms, and stared with half-lidded eyes towards his face.

"And what if I don't want to, Sebastian Michealis?" She spoke seductively, lifting the un-gloved hand towards his neck. "What if I don't want to play nice, and I end up being the big, bad, wolf? What can you possibly do to a creature like me, Sebastian?" She drew a thin trail of blood along his pale neck, and tilted her head towards it, licking up a drop of the scarlet liquid that dripped tantalizingly from his neck.

"Hmm. You don't taste that bad. Spicy and yet sweet, with the underlying touch of the power only first-class demons acquire." Mariette continued, licking her lips slowly.

Sebastian seemed vaguely unfazed, though his eyes narrowed in understanding.

"Why would a creature like you form an alliance with someone like Lady Elizabeth?" He implored.

"Don't go for first appearances, Mr. Demon." Mariette childishly added, reaching for her handkerchief. "She has gone through far too much for her age, though it adds to the taste of her blood. It's very delicious, with all that hatred mixed in with her innocence."

Sebastian continued whirling through the steps, his face smiling, but his eyes unreadable.

"Be careful, Miss Vampire. If you harm her in any way, my master may command me to kill you." He divulged. "Even you will regret having to fight a full-blooded demon."

"The only thing I'll regret is having to annihilate a man with such beautiful eyes." Mariette remarked, her voice flowing like quicksilver through his ears. "You do have such oddly exquisive eyes, Demon. They remind me of someone. Someone I don't remember."

Her eyes were almost sad for a moment, and changed smoothly back to the hollow, empty eyes of a doll.

"Goodbye, Mr. Demon. I hope you have a fine time looking for Jack and The Ripper." She related lightly, her eyes alit with mystery, and her words carrying the tiniest hint of the answer.

Mariette spun away from the grasp of his arms, a mysterious half-smile gracing her blood-red lips, disappearing in a flash of silver.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


	6. The Ripper

Disclaimer - Kuroshitsuji belongs to Yana Toboso...

_Love is a double-edged knife, bringing with it both joy and sorrow._

_**___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________**_

_**Cold.**_

_It was a biting, searing cold that bit into her arms and surrounded her frail body with an aura of intense sadness. It was a kind of coldness that could only be felt by those who understood pain. The kind of burning coldness that only people who have gone through horrifying pain and experienced true despair can feel._

_She felt the iron bars press tightly against her alabaster skin, and opened her tired eyes to look at the room she was in. The room was plain, and painted in a sickly, neon-bright white that was painful to look at. The white of the room seemed surreal, a colour that would have been received as a pure and comforting colour at one time, but now just seemed to be something entirely different._

_Her arms and legs were bolted securely to a stone table, and she looked down to see that she was wearing nothing but her chemise, a torn and dirty piece of silk that barely covered her top half, never mind the bottom._

_"What…happened?" She whispered, staring glassily at the flawlessly white ceiling._

_She pondered her question for a moment, and then closed her eyes as the memories washed over _

_**Panic.**_

_She was restrained._

_**Fear.**_

_She feared what was coming._

_**Desperation.**_

_She needed to escape._

_**Despair.**_

_She was….Violated._

_**Hopelessness.**_

_And then, there was nothing._

_"She is awake." A cloaked man said._

_"Indeed." The man beside him responded._

_It was odd that she had not sensed the presence of the two men, though she hadn't really been paying attention anyway._

_"Who are you?" She said, her voice barely above a whisper._

_The men continued talking, as if she hadn't said anything in the first place._

_"Shall we brand her?" The first man asked._

_The second man glanced at her, his expression unreadable._

_"Yes, we should." He answered._

_The first man took out a brand, dipped it into a fireplace that had appeared out of nowhere, and glanced at the girl strapped to the table, chuckling darkly at her look of horror._

_"No…No… Please…" She said, her eyes wide and fearful._

_"Don't worry, it won't hurt…much." He said, lifting the now red-hot brand out of the fireplace._

_"Don't do this…Please…" She whimpered._

_The second man lifted up her chemise, and took the brand from the first man, and then looked into her lovely green eyes, which were now wild with fear and another alien emotion that seemed to be something like anger._

_"Goodnight." He said, as he rammed the poker swiftly into her chest in an act of unnoticed pity._

_The room went black._

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Elizabeth was screaming. A scream that was half fear, and half undefined fury, a confused mix of emotions that shattered the quiet peace that had just occupied her room. Her body was trembling, and the room suddenly seemed too small, too warm, and much too dark.

In an instant, Mariette was by her side, cradling her in cool, gentle arms, a curtain of ebony hair spilling down to mingle with Elizabeth's own golden locks. Her masked face was impassive, but it held a subtle respect, a simple hint of knowing what the gold-haired girl in her arms had gone through. Jade-green eyes stared up, and the screaming girl quieted, soothed by the normalcy, the sharp and clear reality that was presented to her with the sight of the other girl's unmoving face. There was a spider-thin thread of trust between them, that made Elizabeth think that as long as the dark-haired girl was there, she would always be safe. That fragile thread was what she had desperately clung to as she woke from her nightmare - that had once been reality.

When Elizabeth finally stopped trembling, Mariette drew open the windows and helped Elizabeth into one of her outfits, a dress that was pale lilac in colour, and trimmed with white and violet lace. Just as Mariette finished lacing up her corset, a frantic blur of brown violently made it's way into the room.

"Are you okay? Did anything happen? Was it a burglar? A spider? A monster?" The figure asked, breathing the whole list of questions out in one breath. Her wavy brunette hair shook with every breath she took, and she was panting heavily after her long scroll of questions.

"Yes, to the first question, and no to the rest." Mariette replied in a calculated monotone.

"You don't need to worry so much, Paula." Elizabeth murmured kindly, her voice reverting to the sugery-sweet tone she used all the time for Ciel. "Mariette took care of it."

"O-Oh. Then that's fine." Paula asked, her big chocolate eyes wide and still somewhat surprised. "Please excuse me if I interrupted anything."

"It is fine. You should go and help Maeve with breakfast, Paula." Mariette told the brown-haired girl, her tone suggesting that this was not a question - it was an order. Paula didn't seem to understand, but left anyway, after a few tense moments.

Mariette tied a purple bow into Elizabeth's hair, and added a pair of unblemished white gloves to complete the look. The door to the room was drawn open by Mariette, and she walked out along with Elizabeth, closing the mahogany door with a quiet click.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Jack the Ripper? An underworld bounty of 100 000 pounds already? How interesting." Mariette muttered, as she alternately read the letter she had in her gloved hands and swiftly dusted the shelves of the room she was in. "I wonder why the Baroness wants him dead, or at least alive and caught. Jack and Mr. Ripper must have done something horribly wrong to have made The Baroness dislike them so much. I personally don't really want to kill them yet - since they're very interesting to watch."

Mariette finished dusting the rickety shelves, and stepped outside, strolling gracefully towards the dining room. She stopped mid-way to secure her hair in a strict bun that was seemed entirely flawless, and made her face warm, but distant. As she swung open the door, she was greeted by the sight of a family who, although somewhat awkwardly, were making conversation with one another. The Marchioness, Lady Frances, was as haughtily aloof as usual, and her husband, Marquis Middleford was staring adoringly at his cold, yet beautiful wife with a childish earnestness that looked odd on his ruggedly handsome face. Elizabeth sat happily to the side, her face arranged in the cutely curious expression she had learned to perfect throughout the years. The warm, but dysfunctional family that sat at the table was amusing to watch, and even more amusing to serve.

"My lady, would you like some more tea?" Mariette addressed the Marchioness quietly, with a professional tone of voice. "And Baron Middleford, would you like a refilling as well?"

"I would, Mariette, thank you. I see you have taken my words to mind, since your hairstyle and your manners are much better then last time." The Marchioness replied critically, her icy blue eyes skimming over the dress and face of Mariette. "Your face, however, is still as inappropriate as ever, through that mask covers most of it, thankfully."

Mariette gave a short, almost curt nod in return, and elegantly poured a stream of golden-brown liquid into the china-blue cup of the Marchioness. She then turned to the Baron, who was still staring glassily at the Marchioness, his tousled brown curls and warm green eyes a great contrast to the straight golden hair and frigid azure eyes of his wife.

"Baron Middleford?" Mariette questioned, smiling.

"Ah, sorry. I would, thank you." He responded, snapping out of his dreamy trance. He lifted the newspaper he was holding and set it to the side, so that his cup was easier to fill. Mariette poured once more, and took a swift glance at the newspaper, her eyes entertained, as she read the title of the story for today.

The newpaper was emblazoned by a multitude of bold, black letters that proclaimed the numerous killings of the serial killer named by the police as Jack the Ripper. This unknown murderer was known for killing many prostitutes in a series of gorey, blood-bathed deaths that brought him to the attention of the Scotland Yard. Elizabeth read the newspaper unnoticably as well, her jade-green eyes half-lidded to disguise the flood of emotions that ran through them.

"May I be excused, Mother?" Elizabeth suddenly asked, her face reverting back to the happy-go-lucky expression she had on before.

"You may, Elizabeth. Make sure you are always on your best behavior, and remember to always act like the lady you are." The Marchioness replied strictly, her eyes cold, but with a hint of caring that was hidden deep into the depths of her sapphire orbs. She wasn't the kind of mother that would care to show her feelings on her face.

Elizabeth smiled once more, a smile that practically reeked of sweetness and love. It would have been a beautiful smile if it were actually real, which, of course, it wasn't. It posed as nothing more than an empty mask that hid everything she had been through, a mask that was so warm and bright and entirely, utterly _alive_ that it made you _want_ to believe that it was real, despite the fact that it wasn't. A mask more frightening than any other. It was a mask that covered the lonely suffering of a hateful child.

"Mariette." Elizabeth asked softly, her voice still intolerably girlish, the high, breathy squeak of a spoiled little child. That was exactly what she would have been if she did not go through what she did.

Mariette followed silently, a mere shadow that trailed behind her golden mistress, much like the shadow of a luminous moon behind the glorious sun. She followed, and watched, unjudging, as Elizabeth's facade came apart at the seams.

"Disgusting. To think that we still let such vermin run loose in the streets, without law or order repressed upon them." Elizabeth spat the words out with mirth, her emerald eyes wild with a heartened anger, an only barely controlled fury that lit her eyes like flames. "This vile murderer must be caught by all means. Mariette?"

Her knuckles were bone-white as they clenched her chair. Her face - unmoving, an ivory statue with two burning emeralds for eyes.

"Yes?"

"Catch Jack the Ripper, and turn him in to the authorities. You may do as you see fit afterwards." Elizabeth continued, her face unreadable, but her eyes told Mariette everything. "This is a command."

Elizabeth had seen too much death, cold-blooded murder and heartless killing in her short life, and regarded all criminals of creatures of evil, weak-minded humans that had succumbed to the darkness. She disposed of criminals like insects, perhaps in retribution, a form of desperate revenge against the same lowly, pathetic criminals that had once robbed her of her innocence. It was a petty hatred, but one that gave Elizabeth a twisted sort of peace, never-the-less.

"Yes, my Lady." Mariette answered, sinking into a deep curtsy. "But remember,"

She smiled mirthlessly, and told Elizabeth,

"_Your wishes are running out, My lady. Six left."_

and then, she was gone.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Lillura. Come." A command, issued so gently that it did not seem to be one,

The silver-haired woman followed silently, her beautiful face, once entirely carefree, changed immediately into one devoid of any feeling.

They walked out the door to the mansion, closing the door silently, and in a flash of silver, they were somewhere else completely.

An alleyway, dark, but not forbidding, and a captivating door with the letters of the name 'Baroness' inscribed boldly but elegantly in gold letters against the mahogany door. They opened the door, and walked in cautiously.

The room was huge, a place seemed impossibly large, bright, flooded with a light that was neither sunlight nor candlelit, but instead a ball of glowing gold that lit the room with it's colour. The room was plain, and would have been quite ordinary if there weren't a massive amount of jewel-encrusted coffins in multiple colours that littered the room like paper.

"Mariette." A golden-toned voice that drifted out of a shadowy corner in the room. The figure, a lavishly dressed lady with platinum gold hair streaked with bright blue said the name in a tone that said that it was not meant to be a question, but a statement. Her flamboyantly blue hat, with a flourish of large silver feathers tilted slightly, casting her face into shadow.

The woman snapped open a turquoise fan with delicate designs of silvery-gold fluttering butterflies and painted blue roses. Her own cerulean eyes peered over the lacy rim of the fan, cat-shaped eyes that were a shade of navy blue that exactly matched with her extravagantly decorated dress. Her sapphire earrings shook slightly as she leaned down in anticipation.

"Yes, Baroness?" Mariette responded in a monotone, her face cautious, and expectant.

"You're so cute!" The lady exclaimed, running over to the semi-annoyed girl and pinching her cheeks, and then turning to hug her incessantly. "You shouldn't wear that horrible black dress all the time, here," She pulled out an extravagantly lacy, ruffly blue dress that seemed to the epitome of girliness, "you should wear this!" Her eyes stared hopefully back at the raven-haired girl.

"I apologize, Baroness, but I cannot take you up on your offer." Mariette replied in a flat voice.

"I'll wear it!" said Lillura, who had been silent for most of the way, but who turned back to her normal talkative self once she spotted the dress the Baroness was holding.

"Well, at least one of the pretty young woman here enjoy wearing beautiful clothing." The blue-eyed woman hummed, her eyes staring, almost accusingly at Mariette.

"Baroness Blue. Do you have any information on the criminal you're giving such a large bounty for?" Mariette continued, oblivious of the stare.

"Take a seat first, my dears." The Baroness told them absentmindedly, waving towards the massive pile of coffins spend haphazardly around the room. Mariette swiftly sat on a silver and ruby trimmed coffin, while Lillura took a hesitant seat on a sapphire blue one.

"So, Baroness, do you?" Mariette asked again.

"My, my, all business, aren't you, Mariette?" The blue-eyed woman asked, tipping her hat with one blue-gloved hand so that her hat covered her eyes from view. "I knew you would be, but it's somewhat disappointing to actually see my cute little girl grow up to be so _serious_.

"It is my duty to be so." Mariette responded in turn, her silver eyes shaded and calm. "So, Baroness, will you please share any news you have for me on Jack the Ripper?"

Lilura glanced, her eyes questioning towards the black-haired girl.

Mariette already knew who exactly was the culprit, but she had no reason to reveal that she did, and thus turned to follow her lady's orders perfectly. She was told to investigate and find the person who was the murderer, and so she would do as she was commanded.

"Well, since you asked so nicely, my dear Mariette, I might as well give you a hint." The Baroness responded easily. "There is one thing in common with all of Jack's crimes, that makes his killings truly unique, and this difference is," She paused for dramatic effect....

And burst out laughing.

Lilura nearly fell off her seat, or rather, her coffin in shock.

Mariette stared incredulously at the blue-dressed woman who was cackling insanely, holding her hat in one shaking hand, as if afraid it would fall off from the force of her laughter.

"Aha... Did...ha...you really...hahaha....think...hahaha that you would get....haha... this hint so.... easily?" She said in answer to Mariette's silent question.

"I see. Of course not. What do you require in payment?" Mariette asked.

"Pft. I don't want your mistress' money." The Baroness replied her face contorted briefly in disgust. "I only need you to answer a riddle."

"Ask away, Baroness." Mariette said swiftly.

"Then I will." Was her only response.

"Poor men have it. Rich men need it." She said, her voice wispy, but still golden-toned. "It is greater than God, and more evil than the Devil."

"And if you eat it," She continued.

"You will die."

Mariette only needed to take a few moments to answer the question.

"The answer is," She paused. "Nothing."

Lilura gave a light smile, she eyes lit up with amusement.

"Correct. Though you might have been a bit more creative, but it's fine anyway." The Baroness replied, smiling eerily.

"So what are all the victims missing, Baroness?" Mariette inquired politely.

"Well, I for one, always thought that my lovely little corpses should have just a teeny little bit _more_ inside."

"A bit more?"

The blue-eyed lady slipped lightly off her stool, and drew out a container that had something that looked suspiciously like an kidney inside.

"A teeny, tiny little bit more internal organs, of course."

"To the point, please? Baroness Blue." Mariette replied in a semi-annoyed tone.

"So impatient, my dear." The Baroness told her, stroking the container in concentration. "They're all missing..." She was silent for a while. "A womb."

Lillura gasped, the sound muffled slightly by the sleeve of her dress.

"A womb? Why, pray tell, would they be missing a womb?" Mariette asked, oblivious to the disturbed state of mind Lillura was falling into.

"I have no idea, but these missing organs have made me extremely busy," The blue-eyed woman continued, "since they're cut out so _perfectly_."

The tiniest hint revealed itself in the sentence. Mariette made sure to take note of it.

"A professional." Mariette muttered, unaware that Lillura was saying the exact same thing, but in a slightly more interested voice.

"Thank you, Baroness Blue." Mariette turned to face the door. "For your help."

"You're welcome, Mariette." She trilled, "Just remember to come and visit sometime."

Mariette was just about to close the door when she paused, and questioned.

"Why are you so intent on capturing this Jack the Ripper, Baroness?"

"I'm not fully sure myself, Mariette. Maybe it's because the criminal seems to have to wear the colour I hate the most every time they kill." The Baroness replied carefully. "Always wearing that magnificently hateful cloak of blood, a red that covers their body like a crimson dress. The most desperate, and the most despicable criminal of all." She ended in a whisper.

"I wish to show them mercy, by killing them. Quickly, and peacefully, since they are people who have so much sadness in them."

"I see." And then the two woman were gone.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Lillura?" Mariette suddenly paused.

"Yes, Mariette?" Lillura answered, stopping as well.

I need you to go buy a satisfactory party dress for me, Elizabeth, and yourself, and accompanying accessories." Mariette swiftly commanded, staring toward the silver-haired girl indifferently, as if telling her not to ask.

"Understood." Lillura said in response, disappearing from her side in an instant.

Mariette stepped into the shadows, and smiled faintly.

"Viscount Druitt, eh? What an interesting first suspect. I wonder if the demon's going to be there as well, by the side of his little master, like an ever-following shadow." She mused, and then, she was gone.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Lady Elizabeth?" Mariette asked, her eyes slightly darker than usual. "I have all the information, and Viscount Druitt, otherwise known as Lord Aleister Chamber, appears to be the most prominent suspect.

"The Viscount?" Elizabeth, said, more to herself than to Mariette. "I see. He will be having a party sometime this week, and so we nee-"

"Already taken care of, my lady." Mariette said, demurely cutting her off.

"Very good." Elizabeth replied, her eyes glimmering faintly. "Then let us start the hunt."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A girl wearing a pale pink dress trimmed with black string and embellished with large roses stepped out of a carriage, her hat cocked to the side, overshadowing one blue eye. Her expression was oddly serious, her gray-blue hair set in two pony-tails. She walked somewhat awkwardly towards the door, followed immediately by a red-haired woman dressed in a striking crimson dress with a large hat topped by a massive black feather, along with a red-eyed man and another Oriental man dressed in green.

Another carriage door opened, and a girl in a blood-red dress with curly golden hair stepped out, her jade-green eyes wide and exuberant. Another woman dressed in a silvery-blue dress trimmed with dove-gray followed, her straight silver hair flowing behind her like a waterfall. Lastly, a woman with inky-black ringlets twined elegantly into a bun, and eyes that shone in a multitude of brilliant colours, that were outlined in a striking silver descended. Her dress was gentle and flowing, seeming almost alive in it's luminescent darkness, an endless chasm of black and silver swirls that cascaded down her body, in layers and folds of silky ebony that draped around her, hugging her curves tightly. A silver locket encircled her neck, and a small, black top hat decorated with an elaborate black rose and trimmed with sterling silver, sat on the left side of her head, a spray of black veil shadowing her masked face. It almost seemed like she was wearing the night sky upon her body, for her dress gave the impression of it being so. The three woman walked into mansion, and their figures melted into the glowing light.

Elizabeth arranged her features into that of a naive young girl, widening her eyes in innocence and smiling a sweet, sugar-coated smile that was so entirely fake that it made Mariette want to smirk. Lillura had on a more dreamy face, one so beautifully unfocused that drew men to her like flies to honey, hoping almost desperately to win this beautiful creature's attention. Mariette was emotionless, as usual, though to the people observing her, she seemed mysterious. A dark and almost seductive woman, one that drew every person's eye at least once - and caused them to immediately look back for a second glance. She was a predator, a gliding, untouchable woman who was admired and sought after from a distance, one that was more beautiful than any other, but also entirely and utterly _dangerous. _

"Wow! What a pretty dress?" Elizabeth exclaimed, her face breaking out into a fake, bright and sweet smile. "That head-dress is so exquisite!"

She was answered by a chorus of thanks, from the countless number of faceless woman who she passed and complimented without a second glance. Mariette looked over to the left, and smiled faintly, which was noted by the crowd of people who were secretly watching her, at the sight of a pale pink dress and two blue-gray pony-tails. A blue-eyed girl with her hat covering her right eye was accompaniedby a glasses-wearing, red-eyed man. The scene would be rather ordinary, if not for the fact that the blue-eyed girl in question was actually Ciel Phantomhive, and the red-eyed man his butler, Sebastian Michealis.

"Hello, Ciel Phantomhive." She whispered into the blue-eyed girl's ear, reveling in the look of complete shock, followed by suspicion and confusion that surfaced on her, or rather, _his_ face.

"Who are you?" He demanded, his face haughty and mis-matched with his girly dress, as he turned towards the person behind him. Sebastian followed his gaze sharply.

"Mariette Amorine, Lord Phantomhive. Nothing more, nothing less." She told him, a faint smirk apparent upon her features.

"Mariette? What are yo-"

"The dress that child is wearing is so cute!" A unmistakeably sugery-sweet voice broke through their conversation.

Ciel visably paled.

Mariette smiled, and dragged Ciel behind a towering cake, followed swiftly by Sebastian.

"Where did that child go?" Elizabeth pondered, a look of confusion on her features.

Ciel sighed in relief, and told both Mariette and Sebastian,

"Let's go where Madame is."

He walked there, and found Madame surrounded by a crowd of men, laughing in earnest. Ciel became somewhat more annoyed.

"How strange..." Sebastian noted. "For your fiancee to be here, it is quite unexpected..."

"Indeed, Ciel Phantomhive. May I have the liberty to ask why you are wearing a dress meant for _girls, _when you are most obviously a _boy_? Mariette serenely questioned, ignoring the killer intent the young boy was radiating.

"That's none of your business." Ciel snapped, a dusting of pink apparent on his cheeks. "Regardless of the disguise...If we meet..." He continued, to Sebastian.

"You'll be found out." Mariette and Sebastian replied at the same time, Mariette adding, "And you won't be able to investigate."

Ciel swerved sharply to take a look at her, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. Sebastian simply smirked and watched.

"How did you know about that?" He quietly asked.

"Intuition, Earl Phantomhive," She replied, eyes mocking. "and the fact that I'm searching for them too."

"Them?" Sebastian suddenly asked.

"Viscount Druitt is so handsome tonight!" A high-pitched voice squealed. "His light golden hair is like fine gold thread!"

A handsome, blue-eyed man with gold-spun hair was standing, a glass of wine in his gloved hand.

"So that's..." Ciel started.

"Viscount Druitt." Mariette and Sebastian finished.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


	7. The Memories

Disclaimer: Kuroshitsuji belongs to Yana Toboso. I own.... Mariette.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_To kill, you must learn to abandon all your emotions. You must learn to become nothing, a machine that exists for no other reason but to exterminate, to delete, to erase existences._

"Viscount Druitt."

"He's very young." Mariette added thoughtfully, her eyes lit with a peculiar shine, like that of a predator suddenly encountering their prey.

Ciel took a quick glance at her eyes, and was surprised to find a curiously indiscernible emotion swirling in them. He shook his head, and stated,

"I'm going to go greet him."

"Then I'll go too, with Lillura." Mariette smoothly replied. Ciel didn't question the use of the name at the end of her sentence, probably since he was too busy listening to Sebastian's lecture of how he was to act like a proper lady.

Lillura suddenly appeared at Mariette's side, her face composed, a beatific smile on her pale-pink lips. Ciel looked over, and was vaguely startled by the appearance of an extremely beautiful silver-haired woman, while Sebastian simply observed the scene with a mild interest.

Ciel stepped hesitantly up to the Viscount, and curtsied awkwardly, a forced smile apparent on his lips. It was almost funny to see him making such a pitiful attempt at communication, especially since the Viscount wasn't paying any attention to him at all.

"G-Good evening." Ciel murmured, his voice high-pitched and girly. "Viscount..."

"AH! I found it!" A sugery-sweet voice pierced the quiet buzz of conversation like a poison tipped arrow.

"Damn it!" Ciel muttered under his breath. "And I was so close, too." He was running, his heavy skirts lifted up by two black-gloved hands.

"The child in front! Please wait!" The feminine voice continued frantically.

"Over here, my lady." Sebastian whispered, gesturing with a white-gloved hand to a waiter.

"This gentleman," He told the waiter, "Please give a glass of lemonade to that lady.

"Certainly." Was the waiter's good-natured reply.

Lillura and Mariette watched this scene with curiosity and amusement, respectively. Then Lillura stepped gracefully towards the Viscount, her feet as light as if she were floating.

"Good evening, Viscount." She whispered, almost shyly.

"Oh my. Your beauty is so blinding, my lady, like a pure, white dove that is unrivaled in it's loveliness." He whispered seductively as he lightly kissed her hand. "How I am blessed, to be able to be gifted by your presence, like that of an angel from the skies."

"Ah..." Lillura played along, her face heating up in a fake, but prettily pink blush that dusted her cheeks. "Thank you for your compliments, Viscount."

Mariette was tempted to snicker at the scene.

"Ah, and who is this? Such a mysterious lady, draped in a sea of silken black, like a graceful charcoal swan in a sea of plain birds._"_ He exclaimed, in apparent awe, "Your lips are as red as the finest rose, your curls like the cloak of night, and your eyes are so bewitching, my lady. What is your name?" He asked, his eyes searching hers.

"I have no name, Viscount. " She whispered, her voice husky and alluring, as she turned away, eyelashes fluttering lightly over her eyes, and walked into the crowd without a second glance.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"You're saying I should dance in public with _you_? With a _butler_?" A boyish voice sputtered.

Mariette watched silently from a corner as the scene continued.

"Have you forgotten?" Sebastian asked, smiling.

"At the present, I am your home tutor, and this status allows me to dance with My Lady for today only." He explained carefully, "Not as a butler, but as a tutor from the higher echelons of society.

"Oh yeah..." Ciel thought sheepishly.

"I will lead you carefully, so you will not tread on other people." Sebastian continued, obliviously, "Let's go."

They twirled off into the crowd of dancing couples, and Mariette stepped into the glowing light of the ballroom as they disappeared from sight. A crowd of shy admirers immediately crowded around her, asking bashfully for a dance. Mariette ignored most of them, turning to a gray-eyed man with blonde hair and accepting his offer offhandedly.

_His eyes, look like the ones from that man from my dream. The same shade of grey, but not as sad, or half as intelligent. _She thought absentmindedly, reaching out a black-gloved hand and placing it gently on the other mans hand.

She started dancing leisurely with the other man, politely ignoring the fact that he was quite a horrible dancer and came dangerously close to stepping on her high-heeling feet countless times, and kept a sharp eye out for Sebastian and Ciel. In less than a few minutes of enduring the extremely awkward attempt at dancing the man was making, she spotted Sebastian and Ciel Phantomhive, stifling the chuckles she had from seeing Ciel being almost literally _carried_ by Sebastian as they danced.

She stared, smiling emptily as Sebastian met her eyes with evident surprise, and twirled away from his sight. In an instant, he was by her side, intercepting her dance, and quietly asking,

"May I have this dance, my Lady?" He reached out with a white-gloved hand.

Mariette smiled, and took his hand, noting that their fingers were almost the same length, though hers were the slightest bit slimmer. She had cool and graceful hands, feathery-soft while his were elegant and warm. She looked up at him, gazing sharply into his burgundy eyes, and stepped back, her skirts ruffling, in the first step of the dance.

Their impeccably perfect dancing drew the gaze of all the people around them, as they whirled in quick, furious circles, Mariette's skirts moving along with her like the currents of a monstrous, magnificent wind and Sebastian's tail-coat flapping lightly, like a hidden wind that could and would tear you apart if it had the chance to. They were like two black swallows in appearance, through they had the deadly aura of a pair of more dangerous birds.

"What do you mean by 'they', Mariette Amorine?" Sebastian whispered into her ear, "Are you trying to instigate that Jack the Ripper is not one person, but two?"

"Well, Mr. Demon," Mariette dipped into a slight bow, her tone mocking, "what do you think I'm trying to tell you?"

Sebastian stayed silent for a moment, his eyes searching hers for any hint of emotion, though he found none.

"I think," He paused, twirling her effortlessly with one hand, "that you are giving us a hint."

"I suppose I am, aren't I?" Mariette leaned back slightly. "After all, aren't greater beings supposed to help along the lesser ones sometimes?" Her eyes were filled with sardonic mocking.

A cold, distinct fury flashed through Sebastian's eyes for a brief, fleeting moment, before he closed his eyes and smiled patronizingly at Mariette.

"Are you sure you're a higher being, Miss Amorine?" His eyes were blank. Unreadable. Untouchable.

"You doubt me, Michealis? You, a demon so handicapped that he is unable to see the truth in the eyes of a so-called human?" She was smiling a cold, painted-doll smile. Her right eye was engulfed in a forget-me-not blue that shone as cold as ice.

"I do, Mariette. I do." Were his only words as he lifted her into a sweeping twirl.

Mariette simply looked at him, pausing only for a second as a memory washed over her.

_"Dance with me. Please?" The voice was bright and alive, a golden-toned sweep of sound._

_"Aww. Come on, nobody dresses all fancy-like and goes round doin those twirly things anymore. This the streets, and gutter rats dun't dance."_

_She only had to look at him with those big, beautiful green eyes for him to crack._

_"Fine, but I' no gonna be the one dere when the Dogs come round."_

_"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She whispered, her ink-black curls touched with strands of red, accenting her alabaster skin. The boy's hard gray eyes softened._

_She reached out a white-gloved hand and placed it in the boy's rough, work-hardened hand with long, dirty fingers and cracked nails. He stared up at her, his straight black hair falling haphazardly onto his eyes, and they settled into an awkward routine of steps, the boy stepping tentatively with his thick brown boots and the girl confidently with her silky-red slippers. The boy was careful not to step on her feet, and eventually, they began to truly dance, in a childishly innocent tirade of movements. The boy held her like a porcelain doll, forever afraid that she would fall and break._

_She never did._

_At the end, as the London bells tolled, the girl stopped abruptly, and with a bashfully red-pink face, gave the boy a soft, fleeting kiss on the cheek that smelled like lavender and felt as soft as a rose, just before she ran off into the streets._

_The boy stared in surprise at her retreating back, and smiled a smile that could light up the world._

"Mariette?" A chocolate-smooth voice cut into her thoughts. She snapped to attention immediately.

"Yes, Mr. Demon?" Mariette answered lightly.

"What were you thinking about, Mariette?" He asked.

"A boy with eyes the colour of a cloudy sky." She mused, "A boy with gunmetal eyes."

Sebastian simply stared at her, his gaze scrutinizing. He had no time to ask anything, for Mariette adruptly wrenched out of his grasp in less than an instant, her brute strength surprising him.

"Bye bye, Mr. Demon. There's things I still have to do today." She hummed in a sing-song voice, her hair spinning darkly away. She glanced at him through half-lidded eyes for a moment, her silvery eyes smouldering, calculating. And then she was gone.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Why of course! If it is you, your cries would be so sweet, my dear robin." His voice was seductive, deceiving.

The Viscount was entertained by this lithe, pretty little girl, who had the innocence of a robin and the flitting, light motion of one as well. She would be a perfect sacrifice for the night.

A woman with stark-silver eyes and a mass of charcoal curls stepped out of the mundane mass of gaudy reddish-pinks and blues and greens, a sleek pillar of black with silver figments against the background of bright colours. Her steps were bold, graceful, and her eyes more alert, more alive then any other woman The Viscount had ever seen. If this girl was a sparrow, then that woman would be a raven, a deadly, lovely raven.

The Viscount watched her as she stepped up to him, her eyes not filled with lust or petty desires of money, but with a cold, detached interest that made him want her more than any other woman he had ever seen. She was different, powerful, _dangerous_, and he knew it and wanted to see her crushed.

"Good evening Viscount Druitt." Her voice had the sweet tone of silver bells.

"Ah, my beautiful raven, how gracious of you to join me once again! This is the nephew of Madame Red, and my dear Robin, this is Madame...?"

She knew he was trying to coerce her into giving her name, though she knew that she didn't have to follow up with his games. She watched, amused, as Ciel's face suddenly paled at the notice of a gold-haired figure behind them. To spare the poor Earl any more humiliation, she stepped slightly to the right, as if she were simply shifting uncomfortably, and blocked the pink-dressed boy from view.

"Viscount, Viscount, Viscount. It would not be much fun if I were to simply tell you my name, since that would be ever so _boring_.Why don't we play a game for it?" Her eyes were almost warm, filled with an oddly mischievous light that gave her a lively, heartened look.

"What a wonderful idea, Madame, but I expected nothing less from someone as obviously intelligent and ravishingly beautiful as you are." The compliments rolled off his tongue effortlessly. "So what is this game, dear raven?"

"If you can give me pleasure beyond anything else, and show me a world I will never forget, then my name shall be given to you." Her eyes were almost sultry, a pair of alluring eyes that drew you in like mice to a mousetrap filled with cheese. "So can you do it, Viscount?" The challenge was issued almost mockingly.

"If I may, Madame, I will show you anything and everything you desire." The Viscount was plotting the sacrifice of this ebony-haired beauty already.

Sebastian suddenly appeared out of seemingly nowhere, and propped a cupboard right in front of Elizabeth, who was watching the scene between the Viscount and Mariette with a carefully concealed interest, her eyes cold and distant.

"The ball is at it's peak, so at this time, may all the gentlemen and ladies watch the magic performance I shall do with this cupboard!" He announced, an intricate mask covering his distinctive features.

Elizabeth faked a smile and clapped her hands childishly, her face filled with a false sort of curiosity.

_'The butler is getting annoying. I may have to get Mariette to do something about him.' _Were her real thoughts.

"Then I shall let you play your part." Mariette answered softly, ignoring the show and reaching out one black-gloved hand and resting it in his palm. The Viscount pulled the wide-eyed Ciel along with her, and motioned to a door situated behind a cream-coloured curtain.

Mariette watched Sebastian as he stepped into the cupboard, their eyes meeting for one searing moment, before she smiled and turned away, and he closed the cupboard door, waiting for the swords to fall. In less than a moment, they did, and the audience watched in fear and awe as Sebastian stepped out alive.

She strolled into the room, only a step behind Ciel, and stiffened as she got a whiff of a scent that was sickly sweet, a scent that was so familiar...

She fell, and watched as Ciel fell as well, noting the leering, laughing smile the Viscount wore on his face.

The room went black.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_**She was aware of being moved, being transported and tied up, thrown into a cage. But she didn't wake, since the memories had to come first...**_

_Their child was so beautiful. _

_A mix of her delicate features and his intellectual, luminous eyes, seas of stormy grey that stared into her own emerald ones. _

_He loved her. _

_She loved her._

_The child that was them, two as one, a being with such enormous presence in a tiny, fragile, body. The child had wavy black hair, not entirely straight like her father's own silky mop of hair, but neither was it a mass of curls like her own. She was so alive, so melancholy, her tiny hands holding her mother's thumb almost solemnly, sweetly, and her eyes piercing into the souls of her parents. She was theirs._

_Two as one._

_**The next wave of memories was slow to come, but washed over her so shockingly, so menacingly she was almost afraid.**_

_He was tired. _

_He didn't want to go through this continous cycle of smiling and bargaining and killing, over and over and over again. She knew he only did this so they would stay safe, but every time, every single time he arrived home with those empty eyes, she knew that a little bit of him died. She knew that he couldn't do this for much longer. She knew that his sanity was already stretched to it's limits, and that he simply couldn't go on for much longer. _

_But if he quit, he would die. _

_And if he died, she would die too, for he was her everything, her best friend, her heart, her mind and her life._

_If he died, she would lose her everything._

**_The last wave was blurry, unfocused, like a memory that was there, but also wasn't. It was like a memory that she didn't want to remember._**

_Gunshots. _

_A chaotic mess of men, blood and bullets flying in a deadly whirlwind of colour._

_Desperate, hysteric laughter from the mouth of a one-armed man._

_Pleading, watching the gun turn onto her daughter._

_The bullet flying, inching closer and closer, and then-_

_The glassy gray eyes of a beautiful 2-year old girl. Unmoving, unseeing, unfeeling._

_The eyes of a doll._

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

She woke up.

Her arms were bound securely by twine, her dress rumpled but still stately. She looked up, and found that she was blind-folded.

"It's a dream...?" Was the mumbled question of the person beside her.

Mariette almost laughed at the ridiculously confused voice Ciel sported, then stifled her laugh as she focused on the murmuring of voices in the audience.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please quiet down," The Viscounts voice cut through the tense silence, and Mariette hissed furiously through her teeth. "next are the items everyone has been anticipating."

The crowd's murmur increased in volume as the curtain was lifted from the cages, as Mariette suddenly realized that_ they_ were the items.

The audience glanced hungrily over at the two females, one who was petite, delicate with porcelain skin and silky gray-blue hair with an aura of innocence, and the other, a raven-haired woman with extraordinary features and the frightening, addictive feeling of raw danger surrounding her like a silken veil.

"You may choose to keep them in the cage, or you could play with them as much as you wish, or use her in a ceremony." The Viscount continued, Mariette growing more and more amused by the minute. "Or parts of her could be sold according to what the customer prefers."

The Viscount stepped over to Mariette.

"This one is a feisty, cold beauty with eyes of many colours, like two glorious rainbows concealed in each eye." He began to untie the blindfold.

"Her right eye is a startling blue-silver, cold and luminous, like the sea touched by the moon," The blindfold slipped off her right eye, and the silvery-blue colour glowed like the moon in semi-darkness.

"And her left eye is a crimson-gold, a pit of fire only barely contained by the ring of sterling silver that cages it like an animal." The blindfold slipped off entirely, and her left eye was bright and furious, a fire that was controlled, restrained. Her face was glorious, a terrible, powerful beauty that ensnared the eyes of every man and woman in the audience, hypnotizing them with her fierce eyes.

"The starting bid is 3000!" He announced, unwary of the mocking smile that curved up the lips of the ebony-haired woman.

She half-closed her eyes, and broke her bonds in less than an instant, the single candle that lit the hall flickering out. Then she started to laugh.

Haunting, pitying laughter drifted through the room, digging it's hateful, mocking tune into the heads of every man and woman in the room, and then two eyes, one a pale blue, and as cold as a sliver of ice, and another a red that was brighter than the sun and a thousand times more passionate, peered out of the darkness.

The audience were mystified, and fearful, and out of that fear came the darkness that swallowed the souls of every human in the room, tainting them black, with the exception of one blue-eyed boy and his red-eyed butler. You cannot taint something that is already tainted, after all.

The lights flashed back on, and Mariette glanced, smiling faintly, towards the figure of Ciel Phantomhive and his butler. She noted that everyone else seemed to be blissfully unconscious.

She stepped lightly up to him, picking up her hat and placing it on her head, the brim shadowing her eyes.

"The case of Jack the Ripper is solved." Ciel said, his eyes observing hers.

"He isn't Jack... or The Ripper." She whispered absentmindedly, snatching Ciel's hat off of the ground where it had landed. "Shouldn't you have known that already, Earl Phantomhive?"

He looked surprised. Even angry, she noted, as Ciel glanced back at Sebastian, his gaze cold and questioning.

"Impossible. The Viscount is the only possible suspect for the crime, and we discovered him in the act." Was Ciel's only answer.

She placed the hat on his head, and arranged it so that it covered his violet eye entirely. He glared at her.

"Be careful, little robin, since logic isn't always the answer." Mariette hinted, her fingers lingering on his hat, watching cautiously for Sebastian's next movement. "There are other forces at play here, Earl."

She stared into his eyes.

"Forces that even your talented _butler_ may have some trouble dealing with." And then she was gone.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"You caught him?" A demanding question issued from the mouth of a gold-haired beauty.

"He is not the one." Was the stilted, halting answer.

"Then you will continue looking, I presume?" Elizabeth asked, lifting her glass of ruby-red wine up into the light.

"I will honour your request, My Lady." Mariette answered, her eyes blank.

"Good. May I ask who exactly the girl in pink was?" Elizabeth swished the wine around lazily.

"I think you know, my Lady." Mariette said.

"Perhaps I do. Then again, perhaps I don't. Do I really need to know?" Elizabeth took a sip of the blood-red liquid.

"I don't think you do, My Lady." Mariette smiled.

"Then don't tell me, since I don't need to know." The wine tasted sweet, smooth as it slid down her throat.

"I love him, Mariette." She continued, the wine's delicate taste still lingering.

"I know you do." Was Mariette's only reply.

"I only wish..." She mumbled, her eye-lids drooping, the glass of wine loose in her hand.

_"That he would love me back."_

The glass dropped from her hand, the liquid pouring out in a flood of red. Elizabeth's eyes were closed, a faint red blush still apparent on her cheeks.

Mariette stared down at the shattered glass, and closed her eyes, lifting Elizabeth up and exiting the room. She paused for a moment, and stepped out.

The glass was intact by the time the door shut, the crimson wine still suspended in it's elegant cage of fragile glass.


	8. The Coloured

Disclaimer - Kuroshitsuji belongs to Yana Toboso.... -___-

* * *

_The eyes of one corpse knows more about life than all of the living combined._

_

* * *

_

_The cage was cold. _

_Her eyes were glassy, blanched ice-green eyes that were too blank, too dark to be truly aware. The eyes of the beaten, the broken, a human that was not truly a human at all. They were such sorrowful, hopeless eyes, peering out lifelessly out of the iron cage that surrounded her, glancing, more out of habit than anything else, towards the room she was in._

_She was surrounded by a multitude of shadowy, hooded figures with mocking smiles hidden beneath their ink-black hoods. They were laughing at her, the pitiful, entirely harmless little girl trapped in a cage. Helpless, pathetic, a figure to scorn at. A brown-haired man looked down at her, his face falsely kind, and asked,_

_"How are you today, Lady Middleford?" His voice was sweet, a delicate kind of sublime sweetness that you taste only once - in the poison that brings you death._

_The green-eyed girl did not reply, her eyes staring straight ahead._

_"Ha. So the little lady doesn't seem to be very awake today. Why don't we help her wake up?" His voice was painful to her ears._

_The brown-haired man was handed a long, lean whip with nine viciously curved tails by another one of the hooded men._

_The girl stared up at the man, and watched as he fingered the whip almost tenderly._

_"My friend the Cat will help you, my dear lady." He smiled as he raised the whip, slamming the cage door open. _

_In less than an instant, the whip handle snapped forwards, causing the tails to rake down the girl's back in nine long, bloody lines. The girl said nothing, barely flinching at the touch of the metallic whip._

_"Oh, so the lady isn't awake yet, hmm? Let's try again." The whip trailed down her back, digging their claws in so deep they almost cut to the bone. The girl gave no reaction._

_"This_ _is getting somewhat boring, Charles. Why don't you find another little whore to terrorize?" Asked a black-haired man, absent-mindfully. The girl's eyes sharpened, and her body twitched at the mention of the word 'whore'._

_"Stupid bitch." The girl flinched, her eyes suddenly alit with something akin to fury. She made no move to interrupt, though. "You aren't fun at all."_

_"Just die." The brown-haired man continued, and stabbed a knife into the girl's heart, watching with sadistic delight as her expression changed from an emotionless slate to a look of surprise, and then to a gaze of such pure and complete hatred, mixed in with a wild, animalistic anger so strong that he felt shivers down his spine._

_"I'll kill you." She whispered, a flood of burgandy liquid flowing down her lips and her emerald eyes glaring defiantly at his face. "I'll kill you, and destroy your organization..." She was choking out the words now, a spurt of crimson blood following every word, _

_"Even if I have to sell my soul to the devil..."_

* * *

"I command you, under the name of Elizabeth Cordelia Middleford, to capture or kill the criminal that goes by the name of Jack the Ripper before the light of dawn touches upon the earth." Elizabeth demanded haughtily, her eyes cold and lazily calculating.

"As you wish, my lady." Mariette replied lazily, curtsying in a graceful sweep of her hands.

Elizabeth took a tentative sip out of the cup of tea she had in her hand, smiling faintly at the traces of cinnamon and vanilla she tasted.

"Assam? India does seem to have a rather explosive range of flavours." She paused, and took another sip, slowly savouring the taste. "Though this tea is oddly - though not distastefully sweetened."

Mariette simply stood, watching blankly as Elizabeth finished her drink.

"My lady, may I take some time now to finish off the investigation and prepare for the apprehension of this criminal?" Mariette questioned quietly, her eyes showing nothing, and her face just as entirely emotionless as before.

Elizabeth immediately glanced over at Mariette, as if silently seeking out an answer that didn't exist in the first place.

"Fine. You may go." Elizabeth answered, her gaze sweeping leisurely around the room. She took another sip out of her delicate tea-cup.

Mariette curtsied, and smiled mechanically, disappearing in a whirlwind of shadows.

* * *

A shabby brown room filled with wondrous dresses in all the hues of the rainbow. With a single figure, dressed daintily in a spring green touched by a darker green velvet, sitting sedately in the middle.

"It's nice to see that you're still creating, Miss Green." Mariette commented lazily, her silver eyes flickering sharply over the room.

The woman in green stiffened slightly, before turning lightly, with a predatory grace that seemed odd for her frail figure.

"Of course, Mariette. And your business here is?"

Mariette raked her fingers gently through a row of satin and silk dresses, smiling languidly as she continued.

"Always to the point, aren't you?" She replied. "So I can't just come visit anymore?" Her tone was visibly mocking.

"You never come just to visit, Mariette." The green-dressed woman stated simply. "You live by your reasons, your misguided logic."

"True, very true." Mariette sighed. "But even monsters want to live, _Beauty_. Even monsters like _her_ want to survive."

Miss Green paused, her hand motionless.

"I know that, Mariette. But I can't tell you where she is, because I don't wish for her to die yet. There is too much potential to be exploited."

"Ha." A bitter laugh echoed through the chamber. "And now we see the true face of your organization."

"We are not murderers, Mariette." Miss Green was calm, controlled. "And you were asking?"

"I have all the information I need, Miss Green." Mariette's voice was cold, unyielding. "Goodbye."

And the mahogany door closed silently.

* * *

Darkness. A sharp stillness that was untouchable, immovable. A dirty orphan girl with tattered clothes and tired, stubborn eyes the colour of a spotless blue sky sat curled up into a ball, and settled down to sleep. The alleyway was eerily silent, like the calm before a storm.

Footsteps echoed dimly through the alley, as a pair of worn shoes that were in a surprisingly good condition stepped pridefully along the grimy brick walls. A red-eyed man wearing a thick black coat followed patiently afterwards. The red-haired orphan girl was dutifully ignored as the pair assumed her to be asleep, though in truth she was curiously watching the pair, and as they turned the corner, she followed lightly after them. The figure in front was a one-eyed boy with a stiff, noble gait that immediately defined him as someone that was definitely not a commoner.

The two appeared to be unnaturally cautious, tensed to the extreme, as if they expected something to happen soon. The one-eyed boy turned towards the modest room the alleyway lead to, and stiffened as -

A horrified, desperate scream pierced the air.

The one-eyed boy stiffened as a splash of crimson blood splattered across his face, and the orphan child almost smiled at his expression of utter surprise, followed swiftly by intense digust to overwhelming anger. The red-eyed man clapped a hand over the boy's face, as he threw the door open.

The orphan girl smiled as she saw the figure standing in the entrance of the doorway, tilting her eyebrows up questionably at the overly gore-infested scene of the room. The orphan then observed the scene between the man known as 'Grell Sutcliff' and the red-eyed man named Sebastian, watching as Grell's hair turned flamboyantly red, and as he attached a pair of fake eyelashes, smiling flirtatiously at Sebastian.

"Death God." The orphan girl whispered under her breath, in sync with the red-eyed man.

Another figure stepped out of the darkness, a beautiful woman clothed entirely in the colour of blood - crimson. The orphan smiled wistfully, her eyes clouded, unreadable.

"Madame Red." This time, it was the one-eyed boy who spoke, his voice angry, and yet weary, as if to question why it was her standing there, and not some other woman.

The orphan watched unflinchingly as the woman stared, her eyes crazed and cold, towards the boy, and as the red-haired man swung his saw in a wild arch towards Sebastian.

"In the name of her majesty," The boy's voice cut into the chaos, cold and controlled, "and my own wretched name," He slowly slipped off his eye-patch. " I command you... Capture them." His voice held no mercy.

Sebastian complied immediately, draping his coat over Ciel for warmth and slamming his hand in a deadly arch towards Grell Sutcliff.

The two men battled wildly, Sebastian with his feline gracefulness, and Grell with his uncouth death scythe, as he sliced through the lamp-post that Sebastian held, drawing a spurt of crimson blood from Sebastian's arm.

A whirlwind of pictures issued frantically from the sliced arm, many of which contained the one-eyed, or rather, two-eyed boy.

"Why?" Was the only question that issued from the mouth of the blue-eyed boy.

The red-haired woman smiled, her eyes filled with a dark, dangerous anger that showed everything.

"How would you understand?" Her voice was a whisper. "How would a brat like you ever understand?" Louder, filled with fury, like fire, like biting, laughing flames.

And then the knife swung down, and a thin stream of blood dripped from Ciel's arm.

"You can never understand." A haunted sound, the shrieking anger, the liquid fury of a woman who had seen too much, lost too many.

The knife came brutally down towards his face.

It was stopped, though, by a fair, long-fingered child's hand covered with a dainty black glove. A child with unforgettable sky-blue eyes. A child with hair the colour of blood.

She deftly snatched the knife and twirled it around in her hand, her face serene, calm, as if nothing had happened. As if she had not just stopped a murder.

The red-haired Death God stopped briefly for a moment, and took in the picture of the smiling little girl with flaming hair, brighter than his own, and yet somehow more frightening, as the little girl took the knife, and threw it towards the Death God without a single moment of hesitation. The knife almost sunk it's metal tips into the Death God, and yet he somehow managed to dodge the knife, so that it only skimmed the side of his face, shredding a few strands of his ruby hair.

"Bitch." Grell snarled, patting the sides of his head delicately, and glaring at the little red-haired orphan.

"How dare you ruin my hair?"

The orphan girl smiled back at him, her eyes wide and innocent.

"Oops... I was aiming for your eyes..." She was in front of him in an instant. "but I guess shaving off a little of this _hideous _hair is fine as well." She fingered a lock of his crimson hair.

"Why you.." Grell's eyes narrowed threateningly.

He swung his chainsaw in a wild circle, but stiffened in surprise as the orphan girl simply caught the blade, and tore the saw out of his hands.

"You say something?" She asked, twirling the chainsaw menacingly around in one finger.

Grell paused, and stepped back cautiously.

"N-no..."

"I thought so." She replied, and looked over towards where Sebastian and Ciel were attempting to reason with Madame Red.

"So...?" She was now hovering just above Madame's shoulders. "Are they still looking for you?"

Madame's eyes widened.

"What are you-"

"You really don't know?" The little girl asked incredously. "They must have done a really good job on you, then."

"What do you mean?" Madame Red looked towards the girl, her eyes raised haughtily, furiously.

"Little Red..." The girl smiled in an uncannily predatory manner. "Riding Hood?"

"N-no..." Madame Red responded hoarsely, her hands over her ears. "I don't want..."

"To remember?" The girl finished. "Ya don't want to remember him, do you?"

"Stop, please stop..." Madame whispered, her face contorted in pain.

"Stop it." Ciel added sharply. "She doesn't want to hear about it." Sebastian said nothing, but watched carefully.

"Stop what?" The girl asked almost angrily, her eyes flashing blood-red. "Don't you want to remember him...?"

"No...Stop... I beg you..." Madame Red was shaking, her eyes unfocused.

Ciel marched forward, but stopped as Sebastian gently held him back, shaking his head.

"Don't you remember?" The red-haired girl continued, unheedingly, mockingly. "Don't you remember how..

"_You fell in love with the wolf?"_


End file.
